Know your numbers – Using NCIP to improve patient care

Abstract

Objective:

High-quality data has transformed surgical practice, with consultant appraisal, quality improvement, and governance now relying on validated benchmarking of clinical outcomes. The General Medical Council (GMC) requires consultants to review their performance against local, regional, or national data as part of appraisal and revalidation. The National Consultant Information Programme (NCIP) provides a practical, clinician-led solution to meet this requirement.

Materials and methods:

Developed in response to the Paterson Inquiry, NCIP is a national, free data platform using routinely collected Hospital Episode Statistics and Office for National Statistics mortality data to deliver consultant-level activity and outcomes dashboards across surgical specialities.

Results:

In urology, NCIP provides procedure-specific metrics including volume, length of stay, day-case rates, readmissions, and mortality, benchmarked against national distributions and presented alongside patient demographics and co morbidity profiles. NCIP supports multiple clinical and professional uses, including data for appraisal and revalidation, morbidity and mortality meetings, clinical audit, quality improvement, and Clinical Impact Award applications. Case study evidence demonstrates how triangulating NCIP data with other datasets can identify unwarranted variation, support service redesign, and improve patient outcomes.

Conclusion:

Wider engagement with NCIP is essential to embed data-informed reflection and continuous improvement into routine urological practice.

Level of evidence:

Not applicable.