Reminder: National audit 2022/23 – valproate

By 31st March 2023, all community pharmacy contractors must have completed the 2022/23 national clinical audit on valproate, over a six-week consecutive period.  The audit aims to reduce the potential harm caused by taking valproate during pregnancy.

For contractors who have not yet commenced the audit, the last day on which you can start the audit and complete it by 31st March is Saturday 18th February 2023.

While contractors are required to conduct the audit over a six-week consecutive period, the workload associated with the audit is expected to be manageable for all contractors as the number of patients covered by the audit is very low.

When a similar audit was undertaken in the 2019/20 PQS, on average, there were 1.2 patients per pharmacy that participated over a three-month period; over a six-week audit period this is likely to be lower still.

Read more about the audit and access the paperwork

The NHSBSA has published a spreadsheet listing the contractors that have already submitted their audit data on the MYS portal.