How we work
Reviewed by PlainNHS ·
Who we are
PlainNHS is operated by its editorial process, an independent data-journalism publisher registered as a small founder-led operation. We do not employ pseudonymous staff. Our editorial pipeline compiles dataset releases and drafts plain-language framing — every published page is reviewed against the upstream NHS source before going live.
Where the data comes from
Every figure traces back to one of two upstream publishers currently on this site:
- NHS England — RTT 18-week and DM01 diagnostic waiting-time statistics (england.nhs.uk/statistics).
- Care Quality Commission — published provider overall ratings matched to the trusts we profile (cqc.org.uk).
Both publishers release their datasets under the UK Open Government Licence v3.0 or equivalent open terms. Pathway guides may still cite other NHS publications without claiming those series are published as entity pages here.
Our pipeline
- Scheduled ETL downloads the most recent monthly publication from each upstream source.
- Data is normalised into the PlainNHS schema (trusts, procedures, rtt_provider_specialty, dm01_provider_test, cqc_provider_ratings).
- Every page is server-rendered live from this normalised database — numbers in the page body are produced by `SELECT` statements against the live table, not hardcoded.
- Provenance for each value is shown on the page next to the value (data vintage, source URL).
Where AI assists
Our editorial pipeline has two roles: drafting plain-language framing from the upstream source documents (e.g. summarising what an RTT pathway is), and accelerating the codification of the ETL pipeline. Numerical content comes directly from the upstream source — every figure flows directly from the upstream database via SQL. Editorial framing is reviewed against the original source before publication.
What we will not publish
- Fabricated team biographies or pseudonymous “authors”.
- Extrapolated or modelled figures that go beyond the published source data.
- Personal-identifiable information about clinicians (we identify NHS Trusts and procedures — not individuals).
- Editorial endorsements or rankings beyond what NHS England / CQC themselves publish.
How to verify a number
Every entity page on PlainNHS lists its source agency and links to the upstream NHS publication. Click the source link to read the original release; verify the value against the official downloadable dataset. If you find a discrepancy, write to hello@plainnhs.co.uk and we will investigate.
Corrections policy
See corrections for our published correction process.
Download the trust-level RTT extract this editorial process governs: hospitals.csv · open data
This page describes publisher process; entity-page waiting times and CQC ratings remain the NHS England and CQC figures as rendered from source. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page. Data current as of 2026-07-02. Figures here are for context and comparison; clinical pathway decisions belong with your GP, NHS 111, or the treating Trust.