Quality of Cancer-Related Clinical Coding in Primary Care in North Central London: Mixed Methods Quality Improvement Project

The QI project has provided a detailed insight into the many dimensions of cancer coding and sheds light on many factors that underpin variation and coding preference. We offer a number of recommendations. The prioritized ones include the need for a cancer clinical coding data framework for primary care supported by appropriate funding and incentivization; improvements in the breast screening pathway and its interface with primary care; improvements in the quality of secondary care information that is sent to primary care; and dissemination of the importance of coding of cancer activity in primary care.