The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has approved The Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) as fully compliant with its ‘private healthcare market investigation order’, which the independent provider organisation said is a “major milestone” for transparency and informed patient choice across the independent healthcare sector.
Speaking at PHIN’s summer members meeting in London, leaders from across the organisation highlighted the achievement as the culmination of several years of collaboration between providers, consultants, insurers, regulators and patient representatives, adding that more than 12,000 consultants and hundreds of hospitals are now contributing data to support public reporting of information on healthcare quality, activity and outcomes.
PHIN chair Jane Scott said that further work is now needed to increase public awareness and improve information available to patients, and chief executive Dr Ian Gargan said the organisation’s focus remains on helping patients make better-informed healthcare decisions and supporting improved outcomes through greater transparency.
PHIN has recently introduced new benchmarking tools for hospitals and consultants, enabling comparison across measures including activity, length of stay, adverse events and patient-reported outcomes.
Looking ahead, PHIN said its next phase will focus on strengthening data insights, supporting quality improvement and patient safety, and enhancing the value of information available to patients, providers and the wider healthcare system, and added it expects to produce a new long-term strategy is expected in early 2027.
