Disease Prevalence

Information is obtained from the Payment Calculation & Analysis System (PCAS). This is IT software within each general practice that allows monitoring of achievement against the QOF targets. There is a central data repository maintained by a 3rd party; annually each general practice submits an aggregated accredited extract of register counts to the central repository. The data is published on the DoH website at: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/prevalence-statistics It is recommended that users of the data refer to the guidance and factsheets also published on the DoH website at: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/publications/quality-and-outcomes-framework-qof-factsheets QOF prevalence data is only available at general practice level as that is the level at which it is submitted to the repository; the data cannot be broken down by age and/or gender. If geographical data was to be appended to the data, this would be based on location of the practice, that is, by practice postcode and it should be noted that practices draw their list from a number of areas and therefore the location of the practice geographically does not necessarily reflect the practice population.

The data is also published on NISRA Neighbourhood Information Service (NINIS) at: http://www.ninis2.nisra.gov.uk/public/SearchResults.aspx?sk=prevalence; Note the data on NINIS is presented by various geographical areas and administrative boundaries; this aggregation to areas is based on the location of the practice (practice postcode) and does not reflect the geographical areas in which the patients registered with a practice actually reside.