7. EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY
7.1.3 What is the cost of the Patient Reported
Outcome Measures (PROMs) programme? Are the data collected by
the contractor (CHKS, part of Capita Group plc) to be made available
to researchers? Will the risk adjustment of the PROMs data by
the contractor be transparent and open to debate within the academic
community? How much has the taxpayer had to pay for the use in
PROMs of the EQ-5D standardised health outcome measure and the
Oxford Hip and Knee score? To whom has this money been paid and
how (if known) is it being used? What research has been commissioned
to explore the costs and consequences of PROMs? (Q82)
Answer
1. The cost of the Patient Reported Outcome
Measures (PROMs) programme, which covers four elective procedures,
is estimated to be £6.5 million (exclusive of VAT) over
the period 2009-10 to 2011-12. This figure comprises the
estimated costs of three centrally held contracts and a resource
transfer from the Department of Health to the NHS Information
Centre for Health and Social Care for services to support and
deliver the PROMs programme. It also includes an annual uplift
for inflation. The exact cost will depend on the proportion of
patients completing and returning PROMs questionnaires.
2. It is intended that non-identifiable
PROMs data at the patient level will be made available to researchers
via the NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care's extract
service under standard terms and conditions. The precise details
of how the extract service for PROMs will run are yet to be finalised.
Further, aggregated PROMs data at national, commissioner and provider
levels is expected to be published on a routine basis and therefore
made available to researchers.
3. The methodology used by the PROMs Data
Aggregation contractor to risk adjust PROMs data will be published
and therefore transparent and open to debate within the academic
community.
4. The Department of Health has secured
royalty-free licence agreements from the EuroQol Group and from
Isis Innovation Limited for use of the EQ-5D measure and the Oxford
Hip and Knee Score measures, respectively, within the PROMs programme.
5. The implementation of the PROMs programme
for four key elective procedures follows extensive piloting with
NHS patients. The report of the pilot exercise, Patient Reported
Outcome Measures (PROMs) in Elective Surgery: Report to the Department
of Health (Browne J et al, 2007), is published and
available to download from the Internet.[14]
14 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and
Royal College of Surgeons Clinical Effectiveness Unit. http://www.lshtm.ac.uk-hsru-research-PROMs-Report-12-Dec-07.pdf Back
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