Practices told to update own NHS Choices details

The Department of Health says it is trying to improve the accuracy of primary care information on its flagship NHS Choices website to more than 90% but plans to get GP practices to update their own details in future.

The multi-million pound website, developed by healthcare information firm Dr Foster Intelligence together with LBi and Sapient, has been criticised for containing inaccurate and out-of-date information since its launch in June with GP practices claiming that some of the data about them was more than six years out-of-date. 

The DH says the Information Centre is working with primary care trusts (PCTs) to improve the overall accuracy of all primary care information on the website to above 90% but that NHS Choices’ long term solution is to get GPs to update their own profiles.

At the moment changes to the site must be made through PCT web editors.

Every practice in England will be able to access an online form to correct existing information on the site and will also be able to add additional information.

Mark Britnell, the DH’s director general of commissioning and system management, has written to PCT chief executives to set out the planned changes to NHS Choices.

In his letter he says that the additional information practices will be able to add to the site will cover times when GPs are available for appointments, results from the national patient survey, core indicators of patients’ experiences from the Quality and Outcomes Framework and what extended services the practice offers, as well as an explanation of the practice’s approach to delivering services.

Practices will be able to preview changes and see them go up on the NHS Choices’ site within minutes, according to Britnell. PCT web editors will receive an email alert once a month outlining changes that have been made and an email will also be sent to PCTs and practices if no changes are made for 30 days.

The letter says: “This initiative could reduce the workload of PCT web editors and significantly improve the accuracy of information NHS Choices inherited when it launched in June.”

Britnell says the planned changes have been made in consultation with representative bodies including the British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the NHS Alliance.

The letter seeks views from PCTs about the issues and risks the changes might create.

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