An introduction to UK health statistics

1
An introduction to UK health statistics

• John Fox
• HSUG 22 July 2008

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Help New Health Information Specialistsmake the
most of opportunities

• People and organisations in NHS who are they
  and how do they try to work together
  significant mobility between sectors?
• Employers different objectives public, private
  and voluntary policy, service, professional,
  regulatory
• Professional networking development
• Information Governance, access to data,
  data-sharing, and research using key secondary
  sources

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What are you doing?

• Are you involved in public health, healthcare,
  social care, pharmaceutical industry,
  health/medical research, consultancy, teaching?
• Do you work for government, NHS, a university or
  research organisation, local government, a pharma
  company, a private sector healthcare or voluntary
  sector provider, a health charity?
• What do you call yourself analyst,
  statistician, health informatician,
  epidemiologist, health economist, public health
  specialist, biometrician, demographer, or
  operations researcher?
• Is your work primarily concerned with Wales,
  Scotland, Northern Ireland, England, or UK, or
  international?

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How the NHS Works

• NHS.uk link website but describes England
• http//www.nhs.uk/aboutnhs/HowtheNHSworks/Pages/NH
  Sstructure.aspx
• Northern Ireland devolved
• http//www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/index/hss/rpa-home.htm
• Scotland devolved
• http//www.show.scot.nhs.uk/
• Wales sometimes included in England Wales
• http//www.wales.nhs.uk/
• International Health comparisons (OECD)
• http//www.oecd.org/document/44/0,3343,en_2649_346
  31_2085228_1_1_1_1,00.html
• International (WHO)
• http//www.who.int/research/en/

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NHS England
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Main health agencies (England)

• Special Health Authorities
• The Information Centre for health and social care
  http//www.ic.nhs.uk/
• Healthcare Commission http//2007ratings.healthcar
  ecommission.org.uk/homepage.cfm
• National Institute for Health Clinical
  Excellence http//www.nice.org.uk/
• Health Protection Agency http//www.hpa.org.uk/
• Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory
  Agency http//www.mhra.gov.uk/home/idcplg?IdcServi
  ceSS_GET_PAGEnodeId5
• National Patient Safety Agency http//www.npsa.nhs
  .uk/
• Health Safety Executive http//www.hse.gov.uk/
• Other health organisations
• ONS http//www.statistics.gov.uk/default.asp

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Whos who in health statistics in the NHS UK

• Andy Sutherland (IC acting Director of Operations
  and Head of Statistics, NHS England)
• http//www.ic.nhs.uk/
• Nirupa Dattani (ONS health stats)
• http//www.statistics.gov.uk/about/ons/default.asp
  
• Mary Sweetland (Scotland)
• http//www.isdscotland.org/isd/CCC_FirstPage.jsp
• Sue Leake (Wales)
• http//www.wales.nhs.uk/page.cfm?pid739
• Tracey Power ( Northern Ireland)
• http//www.nisra.gov.uk/
• Richard Willmer (England)
• http//www.dh.gov.uk/en/index.htm
• Deana Leadbeter (HSUG)

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Professional Organisationsmedical statistics,
demography, epidemiology, health informatics,
public health, biomathematics, health
classification and coding, healthcare computing,
health economics, medical sociology, operations
research, and medical geography

• RSS http//www.rss.org.uk/main.asp?page0
• HSUG http//www.hsug.org.uk/
• Society for Social Medicine http//www.socsocmed.o
  rg.uk/
• Faculty of Public Health http//www.fphm.org.uk/
• Radical statistics http//www.radstats.org.uk/inde
  x.htm
• ASSIST http//www.assist.org.uk
• E-Health Insider http//www.e-health-insider.com/
• UKPHA http//www.ukpha.org.uk/
• RIPH http//www.riph.org.uk/
• RSPH http//www.rsph.org/

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Use of health records in medical research

• ESRC Economic Social Data Services
  http//www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/r
  esearch/resources/ESDS.aspx?ComponentId9182Sourc
  ePageId20200
• NHS Information Centre (Medical Research
  formerly ONS NHSCR)
• http//www.ic.nhs.uk/our-services/improving-patien
  t-care/medical-research-information-service
• Medical research follow up (link also in
  Scotland) http//www.ic.nhs.uk/our-services/improv
  ing-patient-care/medical-research-information-serv
  ice
• UKCRC meeting http//www.flyonthewall.com/FlyBroa
  dcast/wellcome.ac.uk/UKCRC_FrontiersMeeting/
• Governance http//www.e-health-insider.com/news/31
  59/new_information_governance_board_announced
• Secondary Uses of Care Records http//www.connecti
  ngforhealth.nhs.uk/crdb/workstreams/secusesreport.
  pdf
• National Patient Safety Agency (facilitating
  promoting ethical research) http//www.nres.npsa.n
  hs.uk/
• Connecting for Health UKCRC, ESRC, DH
  Wellcome Trust
• http//www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Publications/Bo
  oks/Biomedical-science/WTX039411.htm

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Key National Health Resources

• Examples
• Censuses (population Electronic Staff Record)
• Vital statistics (births deaths)
• Population estimates and projections
• Large scale surveys
• Small scale surveys
• Patient Experience surveys
• Administrative registers systems NHSCR, HES,
  GPRD, QRESEARCH
• Finance returns management information
• Research datasets record linkage OPCS LS
  cohort studies - ELSA

• Why key
• Multiple Uses
• National Local
• Lobbying, resource allocation, planning,
  monitoring progress, decision-making,
  accountability, forecasting
• Research
• Diverse Users
• Government
• Commerce industry
• Voluntary sector
• Academic Research
• Media and the public

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Measuring UK Public sector outputs and
productivity

• UKCeMGA http//www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/article.a
  sp?ID1429

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Some key topics

• Life expectancy
• Infant mortality rate
• Births
• Migration
• Teenage pregnancies
• Abortions
• Deaths
• Tobacco
• Alcohol
• Obesity
• Cancer
• Hospital Care procedures, episodes, drugs
• GP care Visits nurse care prescribing,
  referrals
• NHS Direct visits to web site
• Attendances at NHS walk-in centres and treatments
  _at_ ITCs
• Infectious diseases AIDs, C-Dificille,
  tuberculosis
• Dentistry
• Social determinents health inequalities

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Useful Publications

• The Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom, ONS
  (annual) describes organisation and recent
  policies of UK health services more detail on
  national web sites
• UK Health Statistics
• DH Departmental Report
• Birth Counts
• NHS Chief Executives Report to the NHS (England)
• The World Health Report (annual) international
  mortality data
• OECD Health Data (Annual) wider range of
  indicators for 30 countries
• UN Millenium Development Goals (annual report)
• Creating a master guide to NHS websites (good
  article about use of statistical process control
  for clinicians)
• http//www.ehiprimarycare.com/comment_and_analysis
  /324/creating_a_master_guide_to_nhs_websites