NHS tools and resources
Reviewed by PlainNHS ·
NHS Trust comparison
The Compare tool places any two NHS Trusts side-by-side on CQC rating, operational performance (RTT, A&E, cancer), and procedure-specific waiting times. Useful at the point of GP referral when you are weighing two trusts on the same procedure.
Procedure waiting-time finder
The Procedure index lists each procedure with its national median wait and a ranked table of NHS Trusts by median wait. Pick your procedure, then sort by Trust median to see the fastest providers.
GP practice lookup
The GP practice listing covers the NHS GP practices currently in our dataset, with each practice's ODS code, CQC inspection rating across the five domains, registered patient list size, and patient survey satisfaction. Filter and sort to find a practice that matches your needs. We are expanding coverage toward the full national register of NHS GP practices.
NHS pathway guides
The Guides library includes 8 plain-language explanations: how the 18-week RTT pathway works, the cancer 2-week-wait, how to interpret CQC ratings, when the NHS pays for private treatment, the Choose & Book referral right, how to make an NHS complaint, the A&E 4-hour standard, and NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility.
Research papers
The Research section publishes descriptive analysis of NHS performance data — RTT performance by region, CQC rating vs operational performance, and inter-Trust variation in procedure waiting times. Each paper is reproducible: the SQL that generated the figures is shown in the Methodology section of every paper.
External NHS resources we recommend
For purposes outside the scope of PlainNHS, see:
- NHS.UK — the patient-facing NHS portal covering symptoms, conditions, medicines, and services.
- Find an NHS Service — the official NHS service-finder.
- NHS 111 online — urgent (but non-emergency) clinical guidance.
- Department of Health and Social Care — UK government policy and publications on health and care.