The NHS will begin recording data from the private healthcare sector for the first time, in an attempt to bridge gaps in patient health records and improve the quality of available information.
An initiative has been launched by NHS Digital and the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) that will see performance data, published by private hospitals, integrated into NHS systems.
Called the Acute Data Alignment Programme (ADAPt), the initiative aims, in part, to address cases in which an individual may have received care privately and therefore has treatment information missing from their NHS health record.
The programme is being jointly led by NHS Digital and PHIN, in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, NHS Improvement, and the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
PHIN is an independent, not-for-profit organisation responsible for collecting and publishing performance data on all privately funded acute healthcare in the UK, as part of the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) Private Healthcare Market Investigation Order 2014.
The data is being made available to the public with the aim of helping patients make more informed decisions about the treatment they receive.
Under ADAPt, PHIN will send data on 750,000 privately funded hospital discharges or “episodes” to NHS Digital each year.
Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, called the programme “an important, practical step in taking forward the safety agenda in the independent sector” that would “drive improvements in data collection and help patients and others understand more about the quality of care”.
PHIN is currently in the process of collating performance data on private practice consultants ahead of an anticipated publication next month.
Approximately 4,000 consultants have logged in to PHIN’s online portal since December 2017 to review and update their clinical data.
Matt James, chief executive of PHIN said: “We’re delighted to be working on the ADAPt Program with NHS Digital and other partners. ADAPt potentially offers a faster and more sustainable way to achieve greater transparency in private healthcare.”
Last year, PHIN launched a series of performance measures for private healthcare providers after a 2014 investigation by the CMA criticised the lack of transparency in the sector.
While the CQC already publishes data on independent healthcare providers, PHIN’s aim is to make more detailed information available to prospective patients.
Sarah Wilkinson, chief executive of NHS Digital, said: “Integrating data from private suppliers into NHS systems will improve the completeness of records for patients whose care is split across private and NHS providers. This will improve safety, efficacy and convenience for these patients.
“In addition, it will provide insights into patient outcomes in the private sector and how they compare to the NHS. These insights will help increase standards of care in both sectors.”
29 June 2018 @ 12:24
This is an absolutely outrageous invasion of privacy. Is there to be no way for people to access healthcare without their confidential information being pillaged by the NHS. One should at least be able to have confidentiality if one is paying for it. If the patient wishes to share their data from private healthcare with the NHS they are free to do so. Coercive data sharing has gone altogether too far and this is the final straw.
5 July 2018 @ 13:12
Bertl,
Did we read the same article?
The public has as much right to know how effective the care provided by a private facility is as much as they have for NHS provided care. There is often an assumption that private is better because we’re paying for it. Rating by outcomes makes sense for everyone – especially given the number of botched private operations the NHS often is called on to fix. So long as data is aggragated and anonymised, what is the problem.
Similarly with person identifiable data. Given long NHS waiting times many people with suspected cancer opt to go private for diagnostic tests including CT scans. If they present unconscious in ED what is to prevent them being given a potentially harmful additional CT scan which could take them over the safe radiation exposure limits, if such crucial data isn’t shared?
Far from being an outrageous invasion of privacy, these seem to me to be sensible proposals, but what do I know I’m only a cancer patient and a patient advocate?
By all means opt out of such data sharing, but do so in the knowledge that you leave yourself open to real harm.
5 July 2018 @ 14:28
Anyone is free to share their private healthcare data with the NHS if they think the data is relevant to their direct care under the NHS. This s not what is being proposed. The need for scrutiny of the performance of private providers is being used as a pretext for pillaging of everyone’s private healthcare records by the NHS. There will be no opt out and in time the NHS will be harvesting all private healthcare data. Once data is in the hands of the NHS, we all know that there is no confidentiality and we all know what will happen to the data. All supposed opt-outs offered by the NHS are fraudulent. They are either ignored, illegally overruled, or circumvented using “sufficiently anonymised” data that is neither anonymous nor unidentifiable. If I am reading between the lines of the article, I think the writing between the lines is crystal clear, especially in the light of the declared NHS aspiration to create a comprehensive longitudinal, integrated care record across all care settings, for every patient in England. The duty of confidentiality is DEAD and this is going to be forced on private poroviders.
28 June 2018 @ 10:17
These other qualified providers already provide a significant volume of elective care for NHS patients. Our regional integrated health record holds continuity of care information from all core NHS providers but not these ‘other qualified providers’ – it has been a challenge to get them to the table to start integration conversations. This creates a significant gap in the health record of some patients. Including when urgent care is required after an elective episode and the local acute NHS Trust picks up the pieces. When asked the question directly, Jeremy Hunt stated that this was an issue for commissioners of clinical services rather than central government.
28 June 2018 @ 08:04
Wouldn’t be easier,better and more inclusive to implement a solution enabling the patient to have in her/his possession the medical data either from the public or the private sector in collaboration with the physician?
28 June 2018 @ 17:15
Yes! Individual people should hold – and be responsible for – their own data. I would hope that the era of dinosaur megasystems has passed. Apart, from anything else, it would save a ton of money.
29 June 2018 @ 04:40
Yes, the individual (and possibly their own carers) are at the heart of their health journey, they are the only consistent throughout their health journey.
29 June 2018 @ 11:22
Agree that people should have electronic access to their own records but not be responsible for them. As this may lead to issues with those who are not capable of maintaining their own health record or have no interest in doing so. It could also lead to issues of people choosing what to include in their own records, hiding certain information from health professionals.
Dinosaur mega systems………fragmented systems are not a solution and would lead to a lot of issues for researchers as well as health professionals both medical and non-medical.
28 June 2018 @ 06:25
The title would be better if it read … NHS HQ to record private health business data to address gaps in NHS HQ spreadsheets.
Would be a great idea to (safely, securely, etc) share patients health records between health providers though. Is that next?
28 June 2018 @ 05:31
This makes perfect sense to me because in health it is always people first and not the providing organisations. Good start to my working day, I need to get to work now …