HCA Healthcare and Spire Healthcare are among the first private care providers to take part in the Acute Data Alignment Programme bringing together patient data from the NHS with private healthcare.
The pilots, jointly led by NHS Digital and the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN), will pave the way for the creation of the first comprehensive national dataset of whole practice information for doctors and hospitals providing both NHS and private hospital care in England.
The need for the dataset was highlighted by the independent inquiry into rogue breast surgeon Ian Paterson, who provided unsanctioned and unnecessary treatment to patients in both NHS and private hospitals.
Participants in the pilots include Epsomedical, GenesisCare UK, HCA Healthcare, London North West University NHS Foundation Trust’s private patient unit, Schoen Clinic and Spire Healthcare.
The pilots will test technical changes and governance requirements needed to transfer the collection of private admitted patient data from PHIN into NHS Digital.
It is expected the new national dataset will be made available through NHS Digital’s data sharing services to regulators and public bodies, to help monitoring of safety and drive service improvement, and to support PHIN’s legal requirement to publish whole-practice performance measures for hospitals and consultants offering private healthcare services.
Commenting on the development, Matt James, chief executive of PHIN, said: “It is great to have reached the operational testing stage of this very important partnership programme, and we’re grateful to the hospitals that have volunteered to participate, particularly during the challenges of the ongoing pandemic.
“This is a vital step in moving towards a more joined-up approach to managing healthcare data, and will lead to significant improvements in the use of information to promote patient safety.”
It is hoped the programme will become fully operational in 2022.