New contract for Welsh national clinical benchmarking and analytics systems awarded to CHKS Capita

The system called iCompare will help the NHS organisations in Wales identify areas of good, and poor performance and encourage the sharing of best practice.

CHKS will also provide training and advice on national and local clinical and operational performance reporting.

The procurement was conducted on an all Wales basis to ensure the scope of the system supports users from Welsh Government, and each of the seven participating Health Boards. The programme will be managed between CHKS and members of the Welsh Government and individual Health Boards. CHKS also has a CHKS consultant assigned to each Health Board to facilitate the implementation.

The new contract follows an original agreement for benchmarking service but now includes the addition of analysis for commissioners (based on the CHKS programme developed in partnership with the NEL). Health Boards in Wales are also participating in the review of community data and metrics, as each Board is responsible for community services and commissioning in addition to acute provider care.

Richard Walker, Head of Information Services, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and chair of the All Wales User Group for the Benchmarking Service, said: “Five years ago we signed the first all-Wales benchmarking contract with CHKS and this brought significant benefits for Health Boards in Wales. We now have a unified approach to benchmarking and are able to call on expertise from CHKS if, for example, policy makers decide to focus on a specific area of healthcare. The new contract brings with it a new commissioning focus which will help Wales ensure that specialist and out-of-area services are meeting our requirements.”