Our sources

The sources we draw on

• NHS England statistics — waiting lists, referral-to-treatment times and activity data
• NICE guidance — what treatment is recommended and funded
• PHIN — published private hospital fee and performance data
• ABI — claims and market statistics for health, life and critical illness cover
• FCA publications — rules, guidance, consultation papers and firm data
• ONS — population, mortality and health data
• CMA — findings on competition in private healthcare
• Insurer policy documentation — wordings, tables of cover and underwriting guides
• Royal colleges and medical charities — research and published position statements
• Peer-reviewed literature, where a claim needs it

How we rank them

We prefer primary sources: the organisation that produced the data, in its own publication. A secondary source is used only where no primary source exists, and we say so. We do not cite a news report of a statistic when the statistic itself is published.

Dating and verification

• Every statistic is published as a complete sentence with its source and the date of that source attached
• Each numbered source entry names the publisher, the document title, the publication date and the URL
• A figure is checked against the original publication before an article is reviewed as current
• When a source publishes a newer release, the article is queued for review

See every source we cite

Our research library lists every publication cited anywhere on the site, grouped by publisher, with the pages that rely on each one.

The standard

Every statistic on this site is traceable to an original publication, with its date. If we cannot trace it, we do not publish it — you will see a visible marker on the page instead of a number.