Kidney disease: key data sources

Primary care data

Practice Team Information (PTI)

The Practice Team Information (PTI) programme provided statistics on consultations in primary care from a sample of practices in Scotland up to 2013. A general overview of the data that was provided by PTI is available in the primary care information section of this site. Information on renal disease is not routinely available, but diagnostic codes for renal disease are included in Read code groupings 135 to 138. Further information on Read code groupings is available in the PTI section on the PHS website. PTI data have not been collected by ISD since September 2013. 

Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF)

The General Medical Services contract for general practices, introduced in 2004, included a voluntary Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). Data for Scotland were published up to 2015/16. The QOF measured achievement against a range of evidence-based indicators and included quality indicators for chronic kidney disease (CKD). The advantage of this data source was its national level of coverage. One important disadvantage was that only aggregated data were available, so it was not possible to adjust for age or other differences when making comparisons between populations. QOF data on CKD are briefly reviewed on the Scottish data web page in this section. Detailed statistics on quality achievements and on prevalence of CKD in the QOF are available from the PHS website.

SPIRE

The Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE) is a service that will allow small amounts of information from GP practice records to be used to help doctors’ surgeries, NHSScotland and the Scottish Government to improve care and plan services, and to help researchers to learn more from patient information held at GP practices. More information is available on the SPIRE website.

Prescribing data

Data on the quantity of CKD-related items prescribed by primary care services in Scotland are available from the PHS Prescribing Programme.

Secondary care data

Data on hospital inpatient and day case discharges are held in the Scottish Morbidity Record (SMR01) database. PHS do not routinely report national data on hospital inpatient and day case discharges for CKD or acute kidney injury (AKI) separately. Data are however available on the number of discharges by specialty (Renal Medicine) and by main diagnosis (ICD codes N17-N19 Acute renal failure, Chronic renal failure and Unspecified kidney disease). An overview of SMR01 data is available in the section on hospital discharges. Data on outpatient consultations are held in the SMR00 database. Though these do not include complete information on diagnoses, the specialty of the outpatient service used is recorded.

Mortality

Mortality data by underlying cause of death are published annually by the National Records for Scotland. However, there are no routine publications providing national data on CKD mortality. CKD mortality data are briefly reviewed on the Scottish data page in this section.

Biochemistry data

Regional biochemistry/laboratory data are available from local safe havens.

Scottish Renal Registry

The Scottish Renal Registry (SRR) is a national registry of patients receiving renal replacement therapy for established renal failure in Scotland. The SRR reports epidemiology, and audits against recommended standards of care, promoting excellence in renal care in Scotland. All NHS Renal Units contribute fully. RRT data are briefly reviewed on the Scottish data page in this section.