At a national level the NHS plays a crucial role in reducing healthcare inequalities as well as addressing the ‘biggest killers’ for the most underserved population groups. We do this by tackling inequalities in access to healthcare, and looking at people’s experiences of services, and health outcomes.
NHS England’s Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme is committed to delivering a data led approach where the impact of interventions on healthcare inequalities can be evaluated and monitored.
The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) is set to play a key role in this future vision for health inequalities and is already hosting key dashboards to help local NHS leaders track health inequality metrics.
The Performance Overview Dashboard, available through NHS FDP, has a dedicated Health Inequalities section which includes a range of indicators linked to the Core20PLUS5 health inequality approach.
These indicators show differences by deprivation or ethnic group and are routinely updated. Where appropriate, age and sex are standardised to allow users to monitor health inequality trends and identify areas for action at national, regional and integrated care board (ICB) level.
The metrics make use of a wide range of data sources and cover some of the main reasons for health inequalities, including the deprivation gap for early cancer diagnosis rates, and for emergency admissions for myocardial infarction and stroke.
By tracking and monitoring these metrics through the NHS FDP, NHS England’s health inequalities improvement team and local NHS leaders can demonstrate measurable improvements. It also helps us understand how levels of deprivation vary by geographical area, and how inequalities linked to ethnicity affect access to care and health outcomes in our clinical priority areas.
Work is ongoing to develop healthcare inequalities metrics across the Core20PLUS5 areas for children and young people (CYP) and to break down existing adult metrics by deprivation and ethnicity where appropriate.
Dr Dianne Addei, Director of the Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme at NHS England, said: “Data and evidence must remain a central focus to monitor impact in health inequalities, and to test and evidence what works.
“By embedding health inequalities metrics in dashboards and tools on the NHS Federated Data Platform we will be able to identify areas for action and improvement to drive change and to improve the care we provide to all parts of the population.”
With the focus on the Performance Overview Dashboard which provides the most relevant view of health inequalities aligned with current national priorities, the previous Health Inequalities specific dashboard that was on NHS FDP is being stood down.
Publication reference: PRN01464_vii