20 July 2007
Patients attending independent sector treatment centres are safe, but it is impossible to say how their care compares with the NHS as the centres systematically fail to provide the relevant data, the health watchdog has said.
The Healthcare Commission's July 19 report into the Department of Health's ISTC programme follows concerns from MPs and clinicians that the quality of care in the fast-track centres is substandard.
Anna Walker, chief executive at the commission, said: 'We can provide assurance on the quality of care. The problem we have had has been in collecting statistical information. When the DoH contracted for the ISTCs they asked [them] to produce a lot of information… The difficulty was that much of that information is not at the patient level… and cannot be compared with the NHS.'
The first wave of 23 ISTCs have been in operation for four years and were contractually obliged to report 'key performance indicators' to the DoH as well as routine NHS statistics. In practice, however, much of that data has not been reported, Walker said, with 59% of patients recorded as having 'unknown' ailments.
Where data were available, the commission found that, in general, the ISTCs' performance was similar to the NHS.
However, data incompatibilities meant it was hard to judge whether that indicated higher or lower care standards, as patients receiving treatment at ISTCs were typically younger and healthier, with less complex conditions. For example, the commission noted that emergency readmission rates for hip replacements were similar.
It said: 'This is perhaps unexpected, given the mix of patients treated at ISTCs, which excludes those with the most complex needs.'
The commission further found that both ISTC and NHS-run treatment centres treated a disproportionately low number of patients from deprived areas.
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