Guide · checked October 2026

What is a re-audit, and when should you do one?

A re-audit is a second round of data collection using the same protocol as the first, done after the action plan has been put in place, to show whether practice has actually improved against the standard.

What HQIP and NICE say

HQIP's guide to documenting local clinical audit describes evidence of impact as a second round of data collection using the same protocol, which it says is sometimes referred to as re-audit. It also accepts other evidence, such as a summary of repeated PDSA cycles or annotated control charts.

NICE's Principles for best practice in clinical audit says the same sampling, collection and analysis procedures should be used the second time, and that improvement may be easier to sustain where re-audit happens at regular intervals. NHS England's 2026 best practice guide on clinical audits and registries gives the example of a national programme that stresses re-auditing and continuous monitoring to assess and refine changes.

When to re-audit

There is no single interval in the guidance. HQIP leaves the decision to the audit's stakeholder group: whether to repeat the audit, when, whether the protocol or data collection tool needs refining, and whether ongoing monitoring would serve better. In practice the timing should leave enough room for the action plan to take effect.

For radiation services the duty is in law. IR(ME)R 2017 requires the employer's procedures to provide for clinical audit, and since October 2024 for appropriate action on the results; the DHSC guidance says re-audit should confirm the change worked.

Making the second round comparable

Record the first method in full: population, period, inclusion and exclusion rules, data sources and how unclear cases were decided.
Use the same standards and targets, or report clearly if they changed.
Report any unavoidable change in method alongside the results, as HQIP asks.
Compare like with like: the same measure, the same denominator and a stated sample size.

What re-audit does not mean

Not a new audit with a different question: change the question and you lose the comparison.
Not automatically six or twelve months later: the timing is a local decision.
Not the only way to show impact: run charts and repeated improvement cycles also count.

Where Oriel fits

Re-audit is where hand-built spreadsheets fall apart, because the second round is rarely done exactly like the first. In Oriel the audit is saved as a versioned pack, with the systems read, the rules applied and the template used, and it can run again on a schedule over a relative period such as the previous month.

Its report drafts include a re-audit section, defaulting to six months after the audit period, which you can edit before sign-off. Oriel is a pilot on synthetic data only.

Questions

Is re-audit compulsory?

The general guidance leaves it to the audit's stakeholders. For medical exposures, IR(ME)R 2017 requires employer's procedures for clinical audit and, since October 2024, for acting on the results.

Can I change the standard at re-audit?

You can, but the rounds are then harder to compare. HQIP asks that any unavoidable change in method is reported with the results.

Sources

Official pages, checked October 2026. Guidance changes, so check the current version before you rely on it.

General information for healthcare managers and clinical teams, checked October 2026. It is not legal, regulatory or clinical advice; follow the current official guidance and your organisation's own policies. No patient data is used in these examples. Oriel is a working prototype shown on a fictional demo hospital with synthetic data only. It is not a medical device and is not for clinical use. It drafts and flags for people to decide; it does not diagnose or change clinical records. A clinical safety case and information-governance approval come before any use with real patient data. Oriel is a working name.