East of England Public Health Observatory (erpho) launch three commissioning support products

Fingertips, the online indicator website from erpho, has been updated with new and revised indicators, especially within the child health section.

Fingertips - http://fingertips.erpho.org.uk

Fingertips is a rich source of indicators across a range of health and wellbeing themes, with specific sections on child health, adult social care, health inequalities and substance misuse.

You can browse indicators at top-tier local authority and PCT level for the East of England, benchmark against the East of England or the England average, and export data and graphs to use locally. It is designed for commissioners in local authorities, PCTs and CCGs, Fingertips can be used alongside your JSNA and to help track progress in population health improvements.

In the January update you will find:

• Child Health Inequalities domain has been renamed "The child population"
• 7 new indicators in Child Health: 3 related to hospital admissions, 4 related to demography
• 14 indicators updated in Child Health (7 of which also appear in the Health &Wellbeing section): breast feeding, smoking in pregnancy, child deaths, outcomes for looked after children, Foundation Stage profiles attainment
• 4 further indicators updated in Health &Wellbeing: NHS Stop Smoking Services indicators, Slope Index of Inequality for life expectancy

Further developments will take into account the newly released Public Health Outcomes Framework.  We will be pleased to receive your questions, comments or suggestions by email to: feedback@erpho.org.uk or alternatively fill in the short User Survey accessed from the top bar of the website.

National General Practice Profiles

The National General Practice Profiles tool is a freely accessible web-based tool designed to support GPs, clinical commissioning groups and PCTs to ensure that they are providing and commissioning effective and appropriate healthcare services for their local population.  Find it at www.apho.org.uk/PRACPROF/

Using a variety of graphical displays such as spine charts and population pyramids, the tool presents a range of practice-level indicators, including demography, Patient Satisfaction Survey results, prevalence estimates and secondary care use.

New features in the revised tool include:

• Summary profiles for clinical commissioning groups across England
• Updated disease prevalence estimates at practice and PCT level for five long-term conditions (coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension and stroke)  
• Additional comparators: Not only can you compare your practice with the PCT and England, but you can also make the comparison with your CCG, deprivation decile and practice peer group.
• New-style population pyramids plus extra demographic data such as ethnicity
• Faster navigation between different data sets and different comparisons

The tool has been developed by erpho, the East of England Public Health Observatory, on behalf of the network of Public Health Observatories in England.  Send comments to feedback@erpho.org.uk or fill in the user survey on the tool.

You will see further improvements in the coming weeks, including new NHS Comparators annual data once released, and extra indicators.

Our programme of revisions to the tool is based on user feedback, so please help us prioritise further developments by completing the user survey (and tell us whether the revised tool has answered your previous comments).

Disease Prevalence Estimates

Updated modelled estimates of the prevalence of five diseases (coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension and stroke) with significant impact on the health and wellbeing of the population are now available to inform commissioning of services, and to support case finding and targeting of resources.

The models use information from the Health Survey for England and population statistics to provide the estimated prevalence of each long-term condition.

Results are provided for PCTs, local authorities and GP practices at www.apho.org.uk/diseaseprevalencemodels

Practice and PCT level data are also included in the revised National General Practice Profiles tool at www.apho.org.uk/PRACPROF/

The updated estimates are produced by erpho, the East of England Public Health Observatory, on behalf of the network of Public Health Observatories in England.  Other disease prevalence models, including for diabetes and chronic kidney disease, are also available.

Further information on the need for, and methods of generating, disease prevalence models can be found in Technical Briefing No. 8: Prevalence Modelling, at www.apho.org.uk/prevalencemodelling

To find out about our bespoke commissioning and needs assessment support, contact John Battersby, erpho Medical Director, on john.battersby@erpho.org.uk