NHS England undertook a consultation on the national Patient Reported Outcomes Measures (PROMs) programme in 2016. As a result of the findings of that consultation, NHS England has now taken the decision to discontinue the mandatory varicose vein surgery and groin-hernia surgery national PROM collections.

Along with the evidence found in the consultation, the rationale for this decision is that:

• Surgical treatment of varicose veins is currently much less frequent and the condition is usually not a major cause of patient debility;
• Groin hernia surgery is offered mainly to reduce the risk of requiring emergency surgery, rather than to relieve symptoms, which are often relatively minimal. This, along with the fact that there is no condition-specific PROM for groin-hernia surgery, means that the existing PROM has limited value.

As these PROMs are perceived to be delivering limited value, we are removing the burden on organisations of continuing to collect this data.

NHS England will continue with hip and knee surgery PROM collections and are working with NHS Digital to make the national data on them easier to use and to provide a range of automated outputs that are tailored to the needs of trusts, CCGs and other users.

View a copy of the full consultation document.

The mandatory varicose vein surgery and groin-hernia surgery national PROM collections will end from 1 October 2017.

• Providers will no longer be required to offer Q1 questionnaires to patients undergoing these procedures from this date.
• Patients who have already completed a Q1 questionnaire prior to 1 October 2017, should be sent a Q2 questionnaire to complete in the normal way.

Patients who complete a Q1 and a Q2 questionnaire relating to a procedure which took place prior to 1 October 2017 will be included in the national data set.

• The final annual data publication for the full year 2016/17 data will take place in February 2018.
• The final annual data publication for the half year 2017/18 data will take place in May 2018.

Providers who wish to continue varicose vein surgery and groin-hernia surgery local PROM collections are able to do so and should make arrangements with their supplier. NHS Digital will continue to process and return the data for local use, but this will not form part of any future published PROMs national data.

If you have any queries about this, please email england.proms@nhs.net.

We wrote to Trust Chief Executives and Independent Providers in October 2017 to inform them of the above changes.