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OST Audit

The OST audit process is to assess the quality of care provided to patients on the methadone treatment protocol to ensure that it meets best practice standards.

The HSE requires completion of an annual satisfactory audit to comply with level 1 and 2 contracts.

The audit process is overseen by the Audit Review Group (ARG) which is a joint ICGP/HSE committee and administered by the Addiction Management in Primary Care Programme (AMPC) at the ICGP. The audit assesses compliance with the MTP Self Audit Criteria informed by a range of guidelines including the ICGP guidelines 'Working with Opiate Users in the Primary Care Setting'.

The purpose of the audit process is:

  • To improve patient care, support and safety,
  • Provide you with an opportunity for reflection on your practice and; 
  • Provide an educational tool

Professional Competence: The audit can be used for your annual Professional Competence audit requirement (once in a 5 year cycle) providing it meets the Medical Council guidelines. Alternatively, you can record it for internal CPD credits with 1 hour = 1 credit.

General Information

  • OST Audit Guidelines and criteria
  • General audit information, please see the guides and toolkit located XXX
  • Sample Patient Consent Leaflet for Accepting Methadone Programme
  • OST Audit Instructions
  • OST Self-Audit Questions (examples only)
  • Patient Consent forms

Ethics and Audit

In general, clinical audit does not require informed consent (HSE, 2013). Members of a healthcare team (or their support staff, for example, clinical audit staff) delivering direct care to a service user can perform a review of service user data without consent. However, it is good practice to inform service users that, as part of normal care processes, personal data may be used for audit and quality improvement purposes and also about the importance of the clinical audit function in the service. This may be achieved through informing service users via practice leaflets or posters which are clearly displayed / made available by the service provider (HIQA, October 2012).