NHS Pathways has developed a dashboard tool to help commissioners track clinical demand in real-time.
The Intelligent Data Tool was previewed at the NHS Innovation Expo this month and is due to become available to commissioners in the next six to eight weeks.
NHS Pathways and its integrated directory of services is the underpinning technology to NHS 111 and a number of ambulance services for 999 calls.
The system collects data such as where referrals have been made, at what time and where patients are treated.
It also collects details of all calls that have been triaged through NHS Pathways and what clinical skills were required.
This information has traditionally been provided to commissioners in a raw data format.
NHS Pathways has now developed a new tool, which provides access to analysed reports based on specific criteria and offering filters to explore the data based on things like date ranges, site and call lengths.
Commissioners can benchmark themselves against other areas of the country. Gap data allows them to see when a service was not available to a patient and for what reason.
Jackie Shears, programme head for NHS Pathways, said the tool already holds retrospective data from some 999 services and out-of-hours services as well as NHS 111 pilot sites. It will continue to collect data as more 111 sites go-live.
“It’s about giving the CCGs an accurate view of precise clinical demand in their areas in real-time,” she explained.
NHS Pathways senior information analyst Paul McIntosh said the tool could also be used to track outbreaks of illness and plan for how these would affect local services.
Dr Shanker Vijayadeva, a GP at the Hillview Surgery in Greenford, saw the tool for the first time at the expo and told EHI it had arrived more quickly than expected.
“It’s what we’ve always wanted to know,” he said.
“It gives you the data to change your services and it’s easy to use and not too technical.”