Patients and people considering their healthcare choices are at the centre of everything we do: from directly supporting people in making better informed choices, to working with the NHS and private sector to better understand and improve services. We work in three areas:
1. Support patient choice
Our main role is to help people to make a more informed choice when considering which hospital and consultant is right for them. .
We publish information about quality, safety and costs for all hospital-based private healthcare in the UK, including private services in NHS hospitals. You can search for services in your area from our homepage.
We also provide broader information about how private healthcare is different to the NHS, so if you are using private healthcare for the first time, you know what to expect and what to look out for.
2. Supporting clinical improvement and regulation
We collect more information about private healthcare than any other organisation in the UK.
We work alongside hospitals, medical representative groups, regulators, and public bodies to supply information which supports regulation and helps to drive improvement. We also regularly publish information aimed at academics and researchers.
Our partner organisations include:
- The Care Quality Commission – we share information which supports monitoring and regulation of private healthcare services in England by the Care Quality Commission.
- Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN) – plays a leading role by bringing all types of independent healthcare providers together, supporting them to deliver great care to patients, and enabling them to make a positive contribution to UK healthcare. Its vision is a thriving independent healthcare sector delivering great care to NHS and private patients. We co-ordinate our work and David Hare, IHPN's CEO sits on the PHIN board.
- NHS England – through the National Consultant Information Programme (NCIP) and the Getting It Right First Time programme (GIRFT) – we are looking at how our unique information can be used to support clinical improvement across private hospitals. We also chair the ADAPt programme - a joint, national initiative which aims to improve how data is used across the NHS and private healthcare to support better regulation and improve safety in hospitals. Until February 2023, this was managed with NHS Digital which has now been merged into NHS England.
- Royal Colleges and professional representative bodies – we work closely alongside the Royal Colleges, specialty associations and other representative groups, such as the Federation of Independent Practitioner Organisations (FIPO), the Federation of Surgical Specialty Associations (FSSA) and the Independent Doctors Federation (IDF).
- London School of Economics Department of Health Sciences– our partnership with the London School of Economics is one of the first academic partnerships focusing on private healthcare. The partnership is looking at how we can maximize our data for understanding the quality of care within private healthcare.
3. A positive voice for system change
We are regularly called upon to share our expertise and knowledge to help improve how data is collected and information used within the healthcare system.
We provide expert evidence to national inquiries, including the Independent Inquiry into the Issues raised by Ian Paterson and The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, commonly referred to as The Cumberlege Review.
You can find out more about each of our campaigns and work programmes below:
Our evidence to national safety inquiries and reviews
- Independent Inquiry into the Issues raised by Ian Paterson
- The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety
