DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
News Release issued by COI News Distribution Service. 6 February 2009
- New guidance to
support collection of patient reported outcome measures from April
2009 -
New guidance that will support the NHS to collect patient
feedback on the success of their operations was published today by
the Department of Health.
Lord Darzi first set out proposals for the routine collection of
Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) in his report High
Quality Care for All in June last year. It is a method for
collecting information on the clinical quality of care as reported
by patients themselves. Patients answer the same set of questions
on their quality of life before and after an operation. The
comparable data is then used to calculate a numerical value for
the improvement to their health.
From April 2009, all licensed providers of hip replacements, knee
replacements, groin hernia surgery and varicose vein surgery will
be expected to invite patients undergoing one of these procedures
to complete a pre-operative PROMs questionnaire. A contractor will
then be responsible for collecting the pre-operative data and
administering post-operative questionnaires. Research is underway
to identify other areas where PROMs may be feasible.
The new PROMs guidance sets out in detail:
* The procedures for which PROMs data should be collected;
* Details of the national PROMs questionnaires;
* Roles and responsibilities of the different organisations
involved in the delivery of the PROMs programme;
* A step-by-step guide to the administration of PROMs questionnaires
Health Minister Lord Darzi said:
"While a surgeon may judge a hip replacement successful
because the procedure has been performed perfectly on the day, the
patient will rightly disagree if they are still in pain and
continue to have a poor quality of life six months down the line.
"The beauty of PROMs is that it measures the success of
operations as reported by patients themselves. This programme is
the first of its kind in the world and the information collected
will empower patients to choose a hospital that achieves the best
results for the operation they need.
"It will also strengthen commissioning across the NHS by
offering PCTs the evidence they need to buy the best services
based on patient experiences. What's more, routine collection
of PROMs will enable clinical teams to benchmark their performance
and research the success of different treatment options."
Notes to editors:
1. A PDF copy of the PROMs guidance and copies of the
questionnaires are available from the Department of Health
website: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_091451
2. It is predicted that 250,000 people will be asked to fill out
a PROMs questionnaire in 2009/10.
3. We expect to have robust, comparable PROMs data - adjusted for
case mix - within a year for orthopaedic procedures and nine
months for general surgery procedures. The information will be
available to the public on the NHS Choices website.
4. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine conducted a
PROMs pilot at 24 sites. Evidence showed excellent participation
rates with 80% of patients completing the pre-op questionnaire and
80% of those patients completing the post-op questionnaire. A copy
of the final report can be found at: http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/hsru/research/PROMs-Report-12-Dec-07.pdf
5. The Department of Health is proceeding with Northgate
Information Solutions Limited as its preferred bidder for
Administration and Data aggregation PROMs services, and Market and
Opinion Research International Limited as its preferred bidder for
Analysis PROMs services. The current expectation is that contracts
will be signed during the course of this month.
6. For media enquiries only, please contact the Department of
Health Newsdesk on 020 7210 5221.