PROJECT COMPLETED

The manuscript has been published in BMJ open: Clinical management of community-acquired meningitis in adults in the UK and Ireland in 2017: a retrospective cohort study on behalf of the National Infection Trainees Collaborative for Audit and Research (NITCAR) | BMJ Open

Project status:

July 2022: Accepted for publication

A National Audit on Meningitis Management

What?

This audit will evaluate adherence to the 2016 UK guidelines on the management of adult community-acquired meningitis as well as turnaround times on processing of CSF samples (see UK standards in microbiological investigations).

Why?

Community-acquired bacterial meningitis has a significant mortality (10-30%) but is decreasing in incidence (c. 1/100,000 adults). As a result a high degree of vigilance is required when patients with possible meningitis are seen in hospitals. Evaluating baseline adherence to the new guidelines will help understand what areas needs to be addressed either with further education or research, or in making changes to further revisions in the guideline.

Who?

Any doctor or medical student currently working in the UK, who would like an opportunity to be involved in a large scale national audit.

When?

We are asking participants to audit management of all cases of meningitis seen in 2017. We anticipate this being around 10-20 cases for most sites.

Questions?

Fiona McGill, Liverpool (lead investigator) fmcgill@liv.ac.uk

Jayne Ellis, UCLH (co-investigator) j.ellis@doctors.org.uk

Eloisa MacLachlan, Leeds (medical student liaison) um13ejm@leeds.ac.uk