Overall in 2019, 145 NHS trusts and local health boards (comprising 251 separate hospitals) and 178 independent hospitals were open and eligible to report patient procedures to the NJR. All units except for one NHS trauma unit and two independent units submitted data in 2019. The proportion of all hip and knee joint replacements entered into the NJR compared to those entered in HES, is only available by NHS trust. No data on this is currently available from private providers and figures also exclude units in Northern Ireland as compliance data is not available.
At the time of publication, it has not been possible to produce compliance figures for the financial year 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020 due to the unavailability of data from the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) service.
Of those hospitals submitting data, the proportion of patients who gave permission (consent) for their details to be entered into the NJR were:
NHS hospitals
• 45% of NHS hospitals achieved a consent rate of greater than 95%
• 34% achieved a consent rate of 80% to 95%
• 21% recorded a consent rate of less than 80%
Independent hospitals
• 71% of independent hospitals achieved a consent rate greater than 95%
• 25% achieved a consent rate of 80% to 95%
• 4% recorded a consent rate of less than 80%
There has been an increase in recorded consent for all submitting units when compared to the previous year, with those achieving a higher than 95% rate returning to 55% from 50% in 2018. The proportion of all units achieving a higher than 80% consent rate, has also increased.
Similarly, the proportion of entries in which there is significant data to enable the patient to be linked to an NHS number (linkability) is listed.
NHS hospitals
• 82% achieved a proportion of patients with a linkable NHS number greater than 95%
• 16% achieved a proportion of 80% to 95%
• 2% recorded a proportion of less than 80%
Independent hospitals
• 76% achieved a proportion of patients with a linkable NHS number greater than 95%
• 18% achieved a proportion of 80% to 95%
• 6% recorded a proportion of less than 80%
There has again been a drop in linkability from 2018, with the percentage of submitting units achieving over 95% in 2019 falling from 81% to 80%. The proportion achieving a greater than 80% linkability rate has remained the same at 96% compared with 2018.
Note: Independent hospitals might be expected to have lower linkability rates than NHS hospitals, as a proportion of their patients may come from overseas and do not have an NHS number.