NHS Digital provides digital services for the NHS and social care, including the management of large health informatics programmes. They deliver national systems through in-house teams, and by contracting private suppliers. These services include managing patient data including the Spine, which allows the secure sharing of information between different parts of the NHS, and forms the basis of the Electronic Prescription Service, Summary Care Record and Electronic Referral Service. NHS Digital is also the national collator of information about health and social care, and publishes over 260 statistical publications each year, including Official Statistics and National Statistics. It also runs "The NHS Website", which is the national website for the NHS in England. NHS Digital has taken on the roles of a number of predecessor bodies including the NHS Information Centre, NHS Connecting for Health, and parts of NHS Direct. The organisation produces more than 260 official and national statistical publications. This includes national comparative data for secondary uses, developed from the long-running Hospital Episode Statistics which can help local decision makers to improve the quality and efficiency of frontline care.
NHS Digital runs the Spine service for the NHS, which is a central, secure system for patient data in England. This enables a number of services for patients, including:
the Electronic Prescription Service, which sends prescriptions digitally from GP surgeries and other NHS providers to pharmacies, without needing a printed prescription
the Summary Care Record which allows authorised NHS staff to see a summary of important information about a patient, to help give the best care.
the e-referral service which manages the booking of first time appointments with hospitals and specialists
the Child Protection - Information Sharing system, which helps ensure that any child protection concerns are known by the NHS when they are treated
As the HSCIC, the organisation ran the care.data programme, which was cancelled in 2016. NHS Digital collects the national 'Hospital Episode Statistics', which is a record of every 'episode' of admitted patient care delivered by the NHS in England, including those done under contract by private providers. This involves the tracking of around 16 million 'episodes' of care every year. This information is used for a range of statistical analysis, as well as for determining payments to providers. In addition to admitted patient care, HES also provides data for outpatient and emergency care encounters. The Emergency Care Data Set has been created to replace HES A&E data and provide better data on emergency care encounters. In November 2019 it launched the National Record Locator, which spans different health economies and is intended to enable paramedics, community mental health nurses, children’s health teams and maternity services to access the records of mental health patients across England.
Central technology team
A troubleshooting operation was established in 2018 to help NHS trusts when major IT deployments go wrong. Eight trusts needed emergency assistance in 2018 after a deployment led to severe service disruptions. Funding of £2 million a year for the service has been allocated and expansion is expected.
Statistics and data
NHS Digital compiles national data about the NHS and social care, with over 260 publications every year. In addition, they provide data analysis, and access to data and clinical indicators.
Public-facing services
"The NHS Website" is the public website for the NHS Services in England, and is run by a team at NHS Digital, mandated by DOH with input from Public Health England.
