General Practice Extraction Service (GPES)

GPES can collect 2 different types of information:

• patient identifiable data (PID) - data that identifies an individual, for example, name, date of birth or NHS number; and
• anonymous data - data which does not allow for the identification of an individual

PID data is only used when information is permitted by law or supports direct benefits to patient care.

Find out more about how we look after health and care information. 

 We collect information from providers of general practice services in England.

We collect information for internal teams within NHS England, other government departments, universities and other organisations for, for example academic research.

Data is collected automatically over a specified period of time (this is known as an extract). We usually use the following process:

1. GPs record activity in their clinical systems for the services they provide. 
2. We receive a request for information about a particular GP service.
3. NHS England regions or sub-ICBs offer GPs the option to participate in a data collection for that service.
4. GPs agree to participate in collections for that service on CQRS.
5. We collect information from GP clinical systems using GPES over a specified period.
6. If required, GP staff enter information manually into CQRS. For manual submissions of data please refer to the CQRS guidance.
7. We display the information we collect in CQRS.
8. GPs check that the information collected is the same as is in their clinical system.
9. We provide the information to the team or  organisation that requested it.