PCN Appointments Data Dashboard

The PCN Appointments Data Dashboard provides information about scheduled activity and usage of GP appointments at practice level within a PCN. The aim of the dashboard is to inform users about activity in their own PCN and the impact of seasonal pressures for management information.

It's only accessible via NHS smartcard after successfully submitting an online access request.

To request access to this dashboard use the PCN Appointments Data Dashboard access request form. 

Once your application has been processed, we will contact you directly with the dashboard onboarding details.

To view the dashboard

Once access has been requested and approved we will send you an onboarding email with the necessary details. The dashboard can then be viewed via the following link.

The GPAD collection is the primary data source for the information produced in this dashboard. Data is collected from GP systems from participating practices with 98% coverage in England (as of December 2020). These include practices using EMIS, TPP, EVA (Microtest), Informatica, Babylon (GP at Hand) and Cegedim (Vision) system suppliers.

Dashboard data is updated on a weekly basis, every Thursday.

User access to the secure portal (dashboard) is strictly subject to the Dashboard end user access agreement.

By accessing the disclosed data through the secure portal, users are accepting the terms of the Dashboard end user access agreement

This privacy policy tells you what information NHS England collects about you and how it is used to provide you with access to and enable your on-going use of the dashboard.

NHS England will perform a daily check to see if each user’s smart card has a GP Practice mapped from the PCN they have been set-up for. If not they will be removed from the user group and will not have access to the dashboard, they would then need to re-apply if access is still required.

If the user has multiple PCNs and the check shown they no longer have a GP practice mapped to one of the PCNs the dashboard will no longer display data for that PCN.

The dashboard user group will be audited every 3 months, users who have not accessed the dashboard in the last 3 months will be contacted and advised they will be removed if they do not confirm they still require access

The personal data collected during the access request process will not be used for any other purpose other than managing the access and communications for the dashboard.

Data quality

For guidance to improve your data quality please go to Improving Data Quality - NHS Digital.

How to get your PCN appointment book included in the dashboard

NHS England is working to ensure the monthly Appointments in General Practice publication reflects more accurately the patient care being delivered by general practice. Work is underway to ensure appointment data for activity recorded in appointment books managed directly by Primary Care Networks (PCNs), including enhanced access (EA) and Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS)) is included in the publication. We are currently working with system suppliers to onboard data for PCNs and the following information should help PCNs understand why their data may not yet be included in the dashboard.

Have you participated?

NHS England cannot collect your data without your permission, therefore we need you to complete the participation form in order to give your consent if you have not done so already.

Working in collaboration with another PCN or working in federations or alliances

If you share an appointment book / system with other PCNs in either a Federation, Alliance or any other group setting, we are currently unable to identify the individual PCN the activity relates to. This is because the organisation code associated with the data we collect indicates where the data is recorded, and in this case, it is in the shared appointment book / system. We are working with GP System suppliers to understand how we can rectify this with a view to being able to identify and present back to you the activity relating to your PCN.

PCN and EA activity for your PCN is recorded in your practice appointment books

If your PCN records PCN and EA activity in the existing practice appointment books then we are currently unable to clearly distinguish between which activity related to a PCN setting, an EA setting or a GP Setting and display this in the dashboard. Work is underway to allow us to identify the differences and therefore be able to present this information back to you. We identify PCN and EA activity via service setting which is recorded as part of national categorisation and can be found on the service setting tab. If the data on the service setting tab does not reflect your PCN and EA activity, it may require practices within your PCN to review their categorisation to accurately reflect which appointments should be mapped to the PCN and EA service settings. Read the guidance on how to do this.  

Does your PCN appointment book / system have another code associated with it

If the organisational code associated with your appointment book is different to your PCN ODS code we will require these different codes to extract data from the GP System suppliers.

This code will be displayed in your appointment software and is likely to begin with a Y and if you use EMIS as a system supplier this will be your CDB (customer database) code. For example PCN U80502, also has codes Y07112 and 139818.

If you have not submitted this code as part of your participation form, please resubmit the form with the correct codes.

If none of the above seem relevant to you, and you believe your data is missing please email [email protected].

Latest release

4 May 2023

The following updates have been released:

• new dashboard layout providing clearer navigation across pages
• service setting page added
• addition of PCN Hub data, and ability to select ‘All, PCN Hubs or GP Practices’ appointment books
• ability to select custom start and end date range on all pages
• ability to filter by National Category on the National Category Page
• ability to select Practice when downloading the data
• ability to download individual charts / table across the dashboard
• additional cosmetic changes and revised information in the ‘Guidance and Information’ page

If you have any queries and need additional support, please email our Contact Centre at [email protected].