Using the service
How can I access NHS Comparators?
To access NHS Comparators you first need to register your details with the NHS Information Centre's Contact Centre by calling on 0845 300 6016 or email enquiries@ic.nhs.uk and ask for 'NHS Comparators log-in'
What data is currently in NHS Comparators?
the data currently being used:
- secondary care activity data
- GP list size data (population data)
- Quality and Outcome Framework data
- prescribing data
Secondary care data
The data for the current set of comparators is derived from Admitted Patient Care and Outpatient Commissioning data set data as held on Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). Payments by results (PbR) costings have been applied to these data according to national tariffs.
GP list size data (population data)
The comparators are expressed in term of rates per 1000 practice population, both as crude rates and as indirectly age/sex standardised rates.
It is not currently possible to derive practice population data from national systems though it is hoped that the PDS (population demographic service) will be able to provide these data in the future.
In the meantime we are using population data provided by the Prescription Pricing Department (PPD) which has been submitted on a quarterly basis to them by PCTs. The source of this data is locally held NHAIS (Exeter) systems.
It is important to note that PCT and SHA level comparators are expressed in terms of rates per 1000 of the GP practice registered population and will thus have different values to the same comparators/ indicators that are expressed in terms of the resident population.
Quality and Outcome Framework data
Prevalence data from the Quality and Outcomes framework are included, together with some prescribing data.
What do users think of the service?
NHS Comparators has had a significant impact on the front line. For example, it prompted an Essex GP to review how his practice was handling ear, nose and throat patients because referrals for that specialty were much higher than average.
“There's a real hunger for comparative information and this is the only free access to national comparators of this type,” said Shane Gordan , a GP at Tiptree Medical Centre in Colchester and chief executive of the Colchester PBC cluster, which covers 23 practices and 170,000 patients and is the largest cluster in Essex.
“For me, it's the best bit of software to come out of the centre for a long time. It's simply laid out, easy to use and does what it says on the tin.”
A GP practice in Staffordshire launched a special evening clinic for asthmatics after NHS Comparators highlighted an excessively large number of its asthmatic patients going to hospital for urgent care.