The ethics of auditing diabetes in primary care

The modern general practitioner is able to examine and audit his practice diabetes population in great detail because of extensive computerisation and Read-coding. The ability to compare one practice statistics with another brings with it added pressures to be seen to achieve certain standards. Whilst this is a laudable concept, it results in some ethical issues that have hitherto not been explored. In this article, Dr Martin Cosgrove explores some ethical aspects of audit in general practice and outlines three pitfalls for general practitioners when undertaking audit in preparation for external assessment.