The Department of Health and Social Care has commissioned a national programme of engagement for GPs and practice managers, to “genuinely influence” national policy with their views on how patient data is used across the NHS.
The NHS Transformation Directorate noted that “the potential of NHS data is key to advancing population health, improving patient care, and informing the development of the single patient record, but changes to national policy on data use “will only be successful if they are workable and trusted in practice”.
Views and everyday experiences of GPs and practice managers are therefore sought across three key areas: individual patient care and how health professionals can access or add to the GP patient record; how patient data is used for routine planning at regional and national levels; and how patient data is used for research into new treatments and medications.
Engagement will be ongoing over the next few months, with a survey initially available to be completed, a recorded expert briefing to be released in July, a series of workshops to be held throughout July and September, and a national summit and online event to share and test findings in October.
“We are especially keen to hear from those working in rural, coastal, and deprived areas; in single-handed or small practices; and with patient populations including refugees, asylum seekers, and other underserved groups,” the DHSC notes. “A diversity of backgrounds, experience levels, and perspectives is essential to the quality of this work.”
The survey component of the engagement is live and can be accessed by clicking here.
Wider trend: Health data
The European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency has announced three winners following an open call for innovative projects looking to make health data “usable, interoperable, and clinically meaningful across fragmented systems”. The Regional Innovation Valley project UNITE is funded by the EU to further European digital health innovation and collaboration. Its first open call, centred on sharing health data and personalising remote care, reportedly prompted engagement from more than 1,000 organisations, and received a total of 19 proposals across universities, startups, hospitals, and healthcare providers. Three projects were ultimately selected for funding, and will enter an implementation phase in Spring 2026.
The newly-created Central East ICB, formed from Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB, and Hertfordshire, has revealed its five-year approach from strategy to delivery, highlighting the role of digital and data in achieving objectives and improving outcomes for the local population. The ICB makes a number of commitments around data, stating “high quality, timely data will be non-negotiable”. Over the next three years, the system’s data approach will look to build a single, shared foundation to support better decision-making, with the aim of having a unified view of data to help understand need, target interventions, and track outcomes.
London-based social enterprise management consultancy, PPL, has launched a free-to-use online tool designed to support neighbourhood health across the capital, bringing a wealth of data together to identify local population trends and needs. The London Neighbourhood Public Data Explorer tool enables users to view and compare neighbourhoods on a map, explore indicators across different themes, and export information in PDF format for use elsewhere. “Build your view” functionality is said to offer the flexibility to select relevant locations across neighbourhood, borough, system, and all-London levels, with data on population and demography, health and wellbeing, social factors and wider determinants, safety and crime, and environment and access.
