IBD Standards Group – RCN report

Published: 24 June 2012

IBD Standards Group – RCN report for the Forum Website & Newsletter

Introduction

The political agenda in which secondary care organise the care of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) has dramatically changed over the last six years. The every first national IBD audit (2006) demonstrated huge variation in care national and painted a very bleak picture. The second national IBD audit (2008) revealed only minor improvements in some areas but deterioration in others. In the absence of government white papers and NICE guidance, all the key IBD stakeholders came together and published the IBD Standards (2009).

The IBD Standards Group reconvened in January 2011. All the key IBD stakeholders are represented on the group including, Crohn's and Colitis UK, BSG, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Association of Coloproctology, Royal College of Nursing, IBD Audit, IBD Registry, IBDQIP. Currently Mark Sephton and Jean Bettany represent the RCN for the adult IBD nurses and Vikki Garrick for the paediatric IBD nurses.

Aims and Objectives

The aims of the group are to share current status and future plans of the various IBD national projects, to develop an overall strategy for these projects for 2012 and beyond, to agree what work is necessary to take forward this strategy.

Progress to Date

The IBD Standards have received broad support within England, but no explicit endorsement by the department of health. Wales is the only country in the UK which has an official statement endorsing the Standards - but this has had no measureable effect at local level. Scotland has seen 2 Health Minister meetings, clear support and communication and £50,000 funding for the IBD Audit. Northern Ireland has just allocated £1.5 million funding for biologics and five half-time IBD nurse positions, perhaps more of a success.

It has been agreed that the current IBD Standards do not require any further review at present. However, it is agreed that the IBD Standards need more political weight so that managers are under more pressure to act on the recommendations. In the current changing environment of NHS outcome frameworks and commissioning groups (CCG) it is now timely to produce some key IBD quality measures so that they can be built into future data collections for the IBD Audit/Registry/QUIP. It may well be, in the future, that hospital trusts pay one fixed subscription to all three national projects. The group is now focussing on these key performance measures and looking at various sources to develop these, including the NHS outcome framework, IBD audit, the BSG commissioning guide, AGA IBD measures and a modified version of the ImproveCareNow (paediatric IBD outcome measurement tool).