Transparency in Health Care

Transparency in health care can only be a good thing. The Hellenic Project aims to show us statistics from hospitals and consultants from all over the UK. Unfortunately the private sector are not obliged to publish their information.

Companies and individuals take out health insurance but a lack of statistics could be something that deters new customers from taking out policies.

According to reports the private sector want more transparency. The Hellenic project is gathering data from independent hospitals and consultants but there is as yet no legal requirement to publish these details.

According to Jehan de Silva from Dr Foster Research who are collecting the data for the Hellenic project:

'Dr Foster is collecting data and generating care quality indicators on behalf of the independent health sector. As far as I’m aware, there is presently no intention for them to publish statistics as there is currently no regulatory requirement for them to do so.'


The Hellenic project is run by the Independent Healthcare Advisory Services (IHAS) and NHS Partners Network in partnership with Dr Foster Research (DFR). So far the statistics available for the NHS are very comprehensive and interesting. On the webiste you have the ability to compare different procedures under various criteria for any hospital in the UK:

Infection rates
Mortality rates
Waiting times
Length of stay

The site can also be searched by proceedure and Trust.

Information about private medical establishments and who works there are available but their medical statistics and waiting times are not.

A press release from the NHS Sally Taber, director of IHAS, said:

'The Hellenic Project presents an exciting opportunity. For the first time independent sector providers will be able to accurately measure clinical quality at a national level, both within the sector and against the NHS. With the advent of patient choice, patients are increasingly able to tell us where healthcare is succeeding and where it is failing and the information we gather should help us fully assess that.'

It remains unclear whether the independent sector will be publishing their statistic online. It would however be a very welcome measure.