Patients’ views matter

From next April, all private health care organisations will be required by a Competition and Markets Authority order to collect and publish outcome data. But Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen, chairman of the Private Healthcare Information Network, is urging all private consultants to encourage the hospitals they work with to go beyond simple compliance with the order.

He believes private consultants need to be leading the way in developing how patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) data can be used to drive quality improvement and enhance patient experience in their practice.

Here Dr Vallance-Owen, former chairman of the National Stakeholder Reference Group on PROMs, explains how PROMs can benefit consultants, hospitals and patients.