MyNHS website formally launched

The Department of Health has announced the formal launch of MyNHS, a new website that aims to improve accountability within the health service.

Part of the NHS Choices service, the site provides data on NHS performance, allowing patients to compare the performance of their local NHS hospital, their care services and their local authority with up-to-date information.

At launch, it includes simple, searchable data on food quality, staffing, patient safety and mental health. From early December, patients will also be able to see the Care Quality Commission's individual risk rating for GP practices, while over time, more data will be added, including one-year and five-year cancer survival rates for NHS trusts.

The government hopes this will instill a safety culture within the NHS based on openness and transparency, as has become normal in the airline, oil and nuclear industries.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "The NHS is now blazing a trail across the world as the first major health economy to adopt this kind of culture."

This comes one year after government's response to the Francis Inquiry on historic care failings at the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which led to a widespread review of NHS safety issues.