Official health statistics – more from less? RSS conference Official health statistics – more from less? John Morris Head of health, social care and population statistics 1

Statistical landscape in Wales Several producers of official statistics on health and social care in Wales: Welsh Government NHS performance, primary care, social care, NHS resources, community Office for National Statistics Vital statistics, life expectancy, mortality Public Health Wales Child measurement programme, CARIS NHS Wales Informatics Service Monthly a&e, hospital admissions Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit Cancer statistics

Role of Welsh Government statisticians

Welsh Government – changes in OS Consulted in 2014 to better meet user demand and make production more efficient: Proposed to move from monthly statistical publications for NHS performance release and move to monthly data releases with quarterly analyses – adding value Cease duplicating official statistics produced elsewhere – eg births/deaths Reduce frequency of some statistics Publishing ad-hoc requests http://gov.wales/consultations/statistics/proposals-concerning-publication-official-statistics/?status=closed&lang=en

Meeting user needs User event in June 2015 with UK Statistics Authority, PHW and NWIS: Most users felt needs were being met, but some notable gaps – eg GPs, patient outcomes, community services Some confusion over where to find information and who did what. Users weren't concerned over who did what, as long as they could find it

Moving to a new approach for surveys No National Survey results this year Developing new Survey brings together existing: National Survey Welsh Health Survey Active Adults Survey Arts in Wales Survey Welsh Outdoor Recreation Survey Fieldwork started March 2016; first results June 2017

Changing demands Interest in health statistics is changing.. Move away from traditional statistical releases to making more data available, sooner – real time information? Users value commentary, but not at the expense of timeliness or data provision

Adapting to user needs Moving to meet those changing needs... StatsWales – now open data NHS performance releases, still monthly, but in depth analyses each quarter Improved use of social media and visualizations Better links between the official statistics producers in Wales Looking to fill those gaps, where possible and efficient to do so

Wider context and strategies Informed health and care strategy - A digital health and social care strategy for Wales ‘The public also need to have better access to data and information about how the system is performing to gain assurance about standards and the quality of the care being delivered, so they can make informed decisions about accessing services. Wales has made progress in adding value to the data currently held in local operational systems with, for example, NWIS, the Public Health Observatory and the secure anonymised information linkage (SAIL) databank working together to publish mortality, control of infection and other data routinely to provide transparency for the public. More needs to be done to realise the combined potential of these services to create Wales-wide service intelligence capacity and capability. A greater collaborative approach across health and social care is required to make best use of limited resources, pooling our capacity and capability in data analysis, building a common platform and using common intelligence tools with shared learning.’ http://gov.wales/topics/health/nhswales/about/e-health/

Cwestiynau? Questions? ystadegau.iechyd@cymru.gsi.gov.uk stats.healthinfo@wales.gsi.gov.uk