Private Healthcare Information Network's (PHIN) Patient Insights Explorer shows how private hospital admissions, length of stay and safety incidents in the UK vary by patient characteristics, such as age, gender, ethnicity and pre-existing conditions.

Dr Ian Gargan, PHIN's chief executive, said: ‘People want trustworthy, easy to understand information when they are weighing up their options. Our vision is that 'everyone can make confident choices about their healthcare to get the best outcomes' and our new Patient Insights Explorer – now live on phin.org.uk – moves us closer to that.

‘By adding essential context to the national picture, we are helping patients understand who typically receives private care and what a typical stay looks like. The tool also supports providers to drive improvements in their services.'

The tool includes age, gender, ethnicity and uses a ‘patient friendly' version of the Charlson Comorbidity Index – a tool which predicts 10-year survival in patients with multiple pre-existing conditions – to calculate comorbidity.