PCCIU Data

What data did we collect

• Details of patient encounters.
• Details of Read coded diagnoses, results, problems and procedures
• Details of measurements.
• Details of issued prescriptions.
• Date of birth (only month and year), gender and postcode to sector level (e.g. G43 2), registered clinician.
• Clinician cypher, if present, for each clinician.

Limitations of data

Our data collection is reliant on the data entry systems and completeness within our contributing Practices. Some of these Practices may be 'paperlight' with more complete data entry relating to consultations. The majority will utilise a mixed system of computer and paper recording.

Prescription data and diagnosis coding for Clinical summaries is expected to be quite complete, particularly looking back over the last 10 years. In addition, from 2003, items relating to QOF will be well recorded.

Data relating to consultations and types of encounters are collected but is expected that this data may be less accurate.

We do not collect patient or clinician identifiable data, nor do we collect any free text (clinical notes).

Data Archive

We have collected clinical data from general practice for several years. Subsets of these data are available (subject to approval and by following the PCCIUR application process ).

QOF & Calendar Year Populations

We combined the latest data we received from each Practice since spring 2007 into a single dataset. There are 393 Practices. Using this dataset, we identified the following numbers of patients registered for at least one day in the time period given.

The number of Practices contributing data to a given time period varies as the data were collected from Practices during different seasons and years. This is why fewer or more patients are found for similar time periods. The table below shows the number of Practices from the combined dataset with complete data recorded up to the given season.