How will the reporting of NHS performance indicators develop in the future?
The Government has made a clear commitment that publication of NHS Performance Indicators will be transferred to the independent Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), which will take full responsibility for publication in 2003. The next sets of performance indicators, planned for summer 2002, will be published jointly by the Department of Health and CHI. The indicators to be published in summer 2002 will appear as part of the Performance “star” Ratings system. This system uses performance indicators and any relevant assessments made by CHI to give NHS organisations an overall performance rating. The first Performance Ratings publication, in September 2001, was restricted to non-specialist acute (hospital) trusts and can be found on the Department of Healths website at www.doh.gov.uk/performanceratings. The summer 2002 Performance Ratings will apply to all types of NHS trust: acute (hospital) trusts, specialist hospital trusts, ambulance trusts, community and mental health trusts, an
