posted 30th April 2026
Why Primary Care Needs a New Approach – and How CHAT Can Help
More Metrics has long specialised in turning open‑source data into meaningful insight about UK neighbourhoods.
Our datasets help organisations understand the characteristics of local communities, supporting everything from day‑to‑day analytics to complex modelling. Increasingly, this work has highlighted a challenge that sits at the heart of the NHS - Primary Care performance varies dramatically depending on where you live.
Even when individual GP practices are well run, the picture changes when you zoom out to Integrated Care Board (ICB) level. A simple measure - GP‑to‑patient ratio adjusted for need - shows variations of more than 2:1 between areas, sometimes only miles apart.
Recent ONS figures on healthy life expectancy reiterate this concern: life expectancy of babies born today has fallen to a new low, and the gap between the most and least deprived communities is widening.
A new approach is needed to address these concerns.
Introducing CHAT: The Community Health Analysis Tool
To support fairer, evidence-based decision‑making, More Metrics has developed a business intelligence tool: CHAT (Community Health Analysis Tool).
CHAT is designed to help stakeholders - clinicians, managers, policymakers - have the difficult conversations needed to allocate resources more fairly and improve patient outcomes. CHAT enables evidence‑based discussions that lead to clearer, more actionable decisions.
An international comparison shows that countries with the best health outcomes often achieve them by matching supply with demand more evenly across neighbourhoods. CHAT makes these patterns visible, helping to pinpoint where outcomes fall short and where resources could be better aligned.
How the CHAT process works
- More Metrics only uses publicly available, GDPR compliant data. Data that can be trusted from the outset. All stakeholders have access to the same data and analysis provided by CHAT.
- By using data at neighbourhood level and using LSOAs as the optimal geography, we can see evidence based discussion points, backed by live data.
- Our ‘North Star’ metric, an age and sex standardised death rate (Actual over Expected – AoE) correlates strongly with life expectancy.
- Optional deeper community insights, such as sentiment data, help to understand what matters to local populations, and the factors that shape expectations such as political and demographic contexts.
A CHAT Prototype Joint Venture with Climber UK
More Metrics is exploring a joint venture with Climber to build a prototype, working in collaboration with Lancaster University .
But development will only proceed if there is clear interest from the NHS.
The goal is simple: create a tool that helps the system work together - locally and nationally - to improve outcomes, reduce variation, and ensure every community receives the care it needs.
Example 1: Setting fair resourcing levels for ICBs over the next 5 years
CHAT provides a structured, transparent way for ICBs to set fair resourcing levels over the next five years.
To achieve this, neighbouring ICBs need to work together using a shared set of assumptions.
CHAT enables ICBs to cluster neighbourhoods (LSOAs) into fair peer groups using indicators relating to age and sex, health, disability, education and English language proficiency. Note, this doesn’t use resourcing.
CHAT supports this through a flexible approach combining clustering algorithms, nearest‑neighbour matching, and random sampling by;
- Generating 100 random samples per ICB
- Comparing current vs modeled resourcing across roles and grades
- Using the distribution to set fair 5 year target ranges.
Data shows significant differences in both resourcing levels and life expectancy between ICBs -and within them. The result, transparent, auditable outputs based on real‑world performance – an outcome set fairly across the country.
Example 2: Tracking Emerging Interventions: The Case of Weight‑Loss Drugs
The availability of weight loss drugs, such as Mounjaro, on the NHS is expected to have a material impact on the nation’s health, but there is a high risk that the NHS will not be able to reliably quantify the net benefits of the roll out.
NHS Prescription Data (Oct 2025) and a health foundation study show
- A link between GP resourcing levels and need
- NHS demand is highest where obesity rates are highest in the UK
- Private prescriptions are skewed towards middle aged women living in lower deprivation areas
- Private prescriptions are 10:1 that of NHS
Local monthly tracking needs to link Mounjaro prescription rates with patient outcomes across different groups and conditions, ideally with private prescription data included.
Making the CHAT available as an open platform will help support conversations with private providers and encourage collaboration.
Want to Get Involved? Here’s Where to Start
Development in CHAT will only proceed if there is a clear interest from the NHS.
Our next stage of development is Emergency Department visits by LSOA, exploring how GP density influences downstream NHS workloads.
From there, we can explore cancer diagnosis pathways and other hospital departments, building a fuller picture of how variations in Primary Care resourcing shape patient outcomes and system pressure.
Finally, by tracking the upstream impact of rebalancing Primary Care resources on a monthly basis, we can begin to quantify benefits in real time - something the NHS urgently needs.
If this resonates with you, now is the moment to get involved. The data exists. The methodology is ready. What’s needed is collaboration. Let’s work together to build the evidence base that can support fairer, smarter decisions across the NHS.
If you have any questions or would like to understand more about how More Metrics can support your business or organisation, please contact us.