The NHS could end the publication of data showing how many patients are registered with each practice as part of a drive to simplify and reduce the amount of data put out by its information centre.
The Health and Social Care Information Centre has said it intends to scrap this data, which is currently released on a quarterly basis, over the next three years.
The proposal is subject to a consultation, which said: ’We will stop this quarterly publication. Some information will continue to be available at national level via Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF) Recorded Dementia Diagnoses.’
The HSCIC said the proposals, which will see some data publications scrapped altogether while others will become less frequent or come with less commentary, come as its core funding is being cut by 30% by 2019/20.
In its consultation, the HSCIC said this meant it ’must better prioritise our current services while maintaining our statutory obligations and producing high quality products and services at a lower cost’.
It added: ’It is inevitable given the scale of the challenge that we will have to do some things differently, stop some statistical work or scale back where products are not adding the maximum value for money.’
A HSCIC spokesperson told Pulse: ’The proposal to stop this report is part of a consultation on all reports produced by the HSCIC. There is no definite outcome at this stage, stopping the report or changing its frequency are options that will depend on the reactions received from users via the consultation.
’There are some details relating to this report that are published by a number of different teams and an annual figure for patients per practice may be one of them so it will still be available if that report is unaffected by the consultation.’
