Transparency will be at the heart of NHS England’s transformation of customer services this summer and part of a revolution in patient care.

That’s the view of NHS England’s National Director of Patients and Information, Tim Kelsey, writing on the NHS Voices blog ahead of the NHS Confederation 2013 conference later week.

“For the transformation of customer service, we need a revolution in transparency and this is why it is one of the core strategic priorities for NHS England,” he says. “The Summer of 2013 is full of landmarks – real initiatives that will put much better data in the hands of clinicians so they can improve their outcomes, and give patients new freedom to make more informed decisions and be empowered as participants in their own care and wellbeing.”

He says three unprecedented innovations will bring about the transformation:

• In July: clinical outcomes data by individual consultants will be published by 10 surgical associations, including cardiac, vascular and orthopaedic surgery;
• In July: every hospital in England will publish Friends and Family test data – providing new insight into the quality of customer satisfaction with local services;
• In late summer: the first anonymised data that links the patient pathway between primary and secondary care will be available.

“Put together, these represent the biggest moves ever taken by any health service anywhere in the world to put transparency and patient participation at the very core of the health system. “