NHS Atlas shows health outcomes variation across England’s PCTs
pharmafile | November 26, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | NHS, NHS Atlas, NHS reform, PCTs, Primary Care Trusts, healthcare variation, statin prescribing
A new tool will allow observers to compare at a glance what 152 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England spend in various therapy areas – and what impact this outlay has on specific health outcomes in each of them.
Launched this week, the Department of Health’s NHS Atlas of Variation in Healthcare comprises 34 maps highlighting topics chosen by the department’s own National Clinical Directors.
The government wants to use it to drive improvement across the NHS, identifying the underlying reasons for differences between PCTs when it comes to what they get for their money.
Cancer and problems of the respiratory system, as well as musculo-skeletal and neurological issues, are among the topics covered in the maps.
While it is new, the guide has been put together using 2009 data which is already in the public domain.
Some variation in services makes sense as different geographical areas seek to provide tailored services that are appropriate for their local patients.
Indeed, by its very nature ‘patient-centred’ care seems likely to increase variance in some ways – the report points out that incidence of sickle cell disease is higher in London and Birmingham than it is in Newcastle or Plymouth, for instance.
But this new tool is designed to expose areas where there is no such sensible explanation for apparent anomalies in health care from region to region.
For example, it shows that there is a greater than 25% difference in the percentage of pravastatin/simvastatin per all statins prescribed among PCTs.
“This variation in prescribing practice…is greater than can be explained by differences in the population,” the atlas insists.
“In order to improve unwarranted variations in services, it is vital to expose existing flaws in the system,” explains health minister Lord Howe.
“Making this information available to commissioners and patients will help them to identify and address unwarranted variation to better meet the needs of their local populations,” he added.
Sir Muir Gray and Philip DaSilva, the editors of the atlas, suggest that the road ahead will not be straightforward. “Variation in the level of quality is likely to persist as services seek to improve,” they write.
“This variation is understandable and explicable, especially as each service strives to reach the level achieved by the best, while the best themselves will have moved on.”
It is also the case that the structure of the NHS could be about to change radically: if the key points of July’s coalition White Paper on health are turned into law, then PCTs are to be abolished anyway.
But the editors say the atlas will help commissioners – whoever they are – learn from one another and “consider the appropriateness” of a service.
Adam Hill
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