Accurate ESR records vital for NHS clinical information platform
The NHS England National Consultant Information Programme (NCIP) has been rolling out to surgeons in England for the past 12 months, giving them online access to individualised quality metrics regarding their own practice. Developed by the Getting It Right First Time programme (GIRFT), NCIP is now available for almost every surgical specialty, and is used by 1 in 3 surgeons.
Trust Workforce Leads can help improve patient safety and clinical quality by keeping up to date records of their consultant staff.
ESR is a key component behind NHS England’s National Consultant Information Programme, an online data platform that shares outcomes and activity metrics with consultant surgeons. While no ESR information is displayed in NCIP, the programme uses a feed from ESR records to identify the Consultants practising in each specialty in each Trust. These Consultants are then given an NCIP account using their Trust email (as recorded in ESR), allowing them to review their surgical activity and improve clinical care and patient safety.
By providing this critical authentication data, ESR is helping thousands of Consultants to access their own outcome data.
NCIP also provides elevated access to Specialty Clinical Leads and Appraisal Leads who are identified using the supplementary role field in ESR. Trusts should make sure this field is accurately completed to ensure access for all those who are eligible.
Trusts can help ensure the data NCIP uses is as accurate as possible by:
- Ensuring the ESR records for your consultants are as complete and up to date as possible.
- Ensuring the contract end date is recorded when a consultant leaves their role.
- Making sure the supplementary role field is completed with either Appraisal Lead and / or Speciality Clinical Lead where required. The ESR User Manual guidance for maintaining supplementary roles can be found here.
There are currently nine surgical specialties live in NCIP, including orthopaedics, urology and gynaecology, and the team plans to include all clinical specialties in time.
You can read more about NCIP here: https://gettingitrightfirsttime.co.uk/associated_projects/ncip/