NHS London is making more information about London's healthcare services available to the public.

We want to give patients, the public and the market direct access to London's NHS data so they can use it however they see fit, free of charge.

By publishing this data NHS London is hoping to encourage intermediaries and innovators to develop data products which analyse and interpret the data for the benefit of Londoners.

We have provided some background information about the data, and where there is more information elsewhere online we have linked to some of the main sources of this.

The data can be downloaded from these pages on NHS London's website in excel workbooks. We plan to make CSV files available soon to make it easier to analyse and interpret the data.

The London Healthcare Benchmarking Tool is also accessible from these pages. This allows direct comparison of London's NHS organisations on measures such as staffing, quality, access and finance, highlighting where improvements in efficiency and quality can be made.

The Department of Health's consultation document: An Information Revolution, sets out proposals to radically improve the information available to patients. More information on this wider project is available on the Department of Health website.

Our main aims

By publishing this data and registering it through the London Datastore and data.gov.uk, we hope that:

• organisations and individuals who are interested in analysing and manipulating the information we hold will be able to develop useful tools that will help to explain what the information means for people using the NHS. The data will usually focus on a particular area of healthcare, such as maternity services, or stroke care.
• hospitals and other healthcare providers will be able to see how they are performing compared with others. This could help to improve the quality of healthcare by sharing better ways of doing things.
• doctors and other healthcare professionals will be able to see data more easily and in one place - this will be particularly useful for GPs who will be commissioning services.
• Londoners will become more informed about healthcare services that are available, and over time this may help inform choice about where healthcare is delivered and by whom.

Data will be updated and added regularly

In February 2011 we added data about major trauma and mental health services, and patient satisfaction. We also updated the maternity data to show the very latest workforce and vital signs figures.

We are working with patient groups to find out what people would like to see us release next.

If you have used any of the data on these pages or are planning to, if there are other specific datasets you would like to see, or if you have any other questions or comments, please email informationrevolution@london.nhs.uk.