PROMs

How will the data be used that I provide in the Before and After your operation questionnaires?

The information you provide on the Before your operation questionnaire will be used to retrieve your unique NHS Number from the NHS patient demographic systems.

The NHS Information Centre holds a record of all hospital activity in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) system. HES contains details of all admissions to NHS hospitals in England. It includes private patients treated in NHS hospitals, patients who were resident outside England, and care at treatment centres funded by the NHS (including those in the independent sector). HES also contains details of all NHS outpatient appointments in England.

The NHS Information Centre will use the data held in HES and link it to the information you provided in the PROMs questionnaires. This will help the NHS to identify the factors that explain differences in the reported outcomes of treatments.

It also means, that we don't have to ask you for information that is already held about you by the NHS.

Data extracted from the HES will include details about previous operations, recorded diagnoses, hospital durations, recorded age, gender, or ethnicity if applicable.

For more information, visit the HESonline website.

If you've had hip or knee replacement surgery, your NHS number could also be used to extract data from the National Joint Registry (NJR). Again, the NHS Information Centre will use the data and link it to the information you provided in the PROMs questionnaires.

The NJR was set up by the Department of Health and Welsh Assembly Government to collect information on all hip and knee replacement operations and to monitor the performance of replacement hip and knee joints and implants.

There is a wide range of implants used in joint replacement operations in the NHS and in independent healthcare sectors across England and Wales. The NJR helps to monitor the performance of these implants and the effectiveness of different types of surgery. This work helps to improve clinical standards and benefits patients, clinicians and the orthopaedic industry.

For more information, visit the NJR website.

Will you be using all data that is held by the NHS about me?

Data is extracted from the HES or NJR on a ‘need to know’ basis and will be held for maximum one year. It will only contain information about your operation and the condition relating to it. Any information that could identify you will be removed by the NHS Information Centre (the data controller for this exercises) before it is used for analysis.