Data collection is poor because staff don't see the point

Too few doctors and nurses understand the reasons why collecting information on how their hospital or department is performing matters, says a report from the public spending watchdog, the Audit Commission.

Better understanding by frontline staff of what auditors are trying to achieve throughthe collection of data in the NHS, and through the wider use of the data collected in thestaff's own work, could improve its quality, says the Audit Commission in its latest report, Information and Data Quality in the NHS.

The report looks at how the …