Quality of healthcare in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland: an intra-UK chartbook

Our latest chartbook brings together publicly available data from across the four home nations of the UK and presents an intra-UK picture of quality.

Background

It is almost 10 years since the constitutional devolution of governance to the separate UK countries took effect. There is now considerable interest in reviewing whether the emerging differences in policy and structural arrangements have had an impact on the quality of healthcare provided to the different UK populations.

Defining quality in healthcare

Quality in healthcare is a multifaceted concept, not amenable to a single performance measure or simple metric. During the past decade there has been a concerted international effort to improve measurement and reporting, a growing consensus about the key domains of quality in healthcare, and relevant measures and indicators to populate those domains. The key domains are: effectiveness, capacity, safety, patient centredness, equity, access and timelines.

About the report

Following the NHS Next Stage Review with its emphasis on quality measurement and increased reporting on outcomes, this chartbook is an important illustration of how currently available data can be used to create a coherent picture of quality and performance across these domains in each of the UK countries.  

We understand that improving quality and outcomes is a long-term and ongoing priority for each of the UK countries and the chartbook suggests that this is paying off with progress being made by each country on nationally set performance targets and in tackling significant burdens of disease. All countries in recent years have seen significant falls in mortality from the ‘major killers’: cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke and patient ratings of quality across the UK are high. However, all countries are still trying to improve health inequalities between the best and worst off among their populations. 

The chartbook also offers an international perspective, reviewing the performance of the UK as a whole against other OECD nations, which suggests that collectively we still have some way to go to meet the international best. Our technical appendices aim to address some of the differences in definition that will necessarily arise from such a complex data set.

Who should read the report?

The report is intended for healthcare decision makers, including policy makers, managers, clinical leaders, researchers and patient groups. It should be used to inform decisions and take actions that will lead to better quality of patient care.

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