Provisional monthly HES data for inpatients

This is the most recent publication of provisional monthly HES (Hospital Episode Statistics) data for NHS Hospitals in England and activity performed in the Independent sector in England commissioned by English NHS. Further details about the publication of monthly HES are in the 'about monthly HES data' document which can be found under related documents.

Key facts

In the year from May 2009 to April 2010 there were:

• 16.8 million finished consultant episodes (FCEs), 58% of which included at least one procedure or intervention, and of these 5.5 million were day cases.
• 14.5 million finished admission episodes (FAEs), of which 5.2 million were emergency admissions.

Footnotes

1. Provisional data: The data is provisional and may be incomplete or contain errors for which no adjustments have yet been made. Counts produced from provisional data are likely to be lower than those generated for the same period in the final dataset. This shortfall will be most pronounced in the final month of the latest period, ie November from the (month 9) April to November extract. It is also probable that clinical data are not complete, which may in particular affect the last two months of any given period. There may also be errors due to coding inconsistencies that have not yet been investigated and corrected.

2. Finished consultant episode (FCE): A finished consultant episode (FCE) is a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FCEs are counted against the year in which they end. Figures do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay in hospital or in different stays in the same year.

3. Finished admission episodes (FAE): A finished admission episode (FAE) is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.

4. Ordinary Admission Episode: Ordinary admissions are inpatients who have been admitted for treatment. The intention is for treatment to be concluded in longer than one day. If, unexpectedly, the patient is not kept overnight, the episode remains as an ordinary admission.

5. Day case episode: Day cases are elective inpatients who have been admitted for treatment just for the day. There are therefore always single episode spells with a duration of zero days. The intention is for treatment to be concluded in one day. If, unexpectedly, the patient is kept overnight, it must be re-classed as an ordinary admission.

6. Emergency admissions: The count of admission episodes with an admission method indicating the admission was an emergency (admission method codes 21 to 24 and 281).

7. Primary diagnosis: The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and 7 prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital.

8. Main procedure: The first recorded procedure or intervention in each episode, usually the most resource intensive procedure or intervention performed during the episode. It is appropriate to use main procedure when looking at admission details, (eg time waited), but a more complete count of episodes with a particular procedure is obtained by looking at the main and the secondary procedures.

9. FCEs with a procedure (or intervention): These figures represent the number of episodes where the procedure (or intervention) was recorded in the main operative procedure field in a Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. Please note that more procedures are carried out than the number of episodes with a main procedure. FCEs with an intervention or procedure include: 2008-09 and 2007-08 OPCS 4.4 codes A01-O10 & O15-X97; 2006-07 OPCS 4.3 codes A01-X97.

10. Data quality: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in England and from some independent sector organisations for activity commissioned by the English NHS. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain.

11. Assessing growth through time: HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, apparent reductions in activity may be due to a number of procedures which may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and so no longer include in admitted patient HES data.

Activity included: Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The NHS Information Centre for health and social care.

Responsible statistician

The responsible statistician for this publication is Chris Dew, HES/SUS Analysis (Service) Section Head (enquiries@ic.nhs.uk, 0845 300 6016).

The copyright to the information we are disclosing is held by the Information Centre. The re-use of this information for any commercial purpose is subject to the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005. Should you wish to re-use this information in any way you must ask us for specific permission relating to that you wish to use. If we agree to such re-use it may be subject to licensing and may involve a fee. Applications for re-use should be submitted to copyright@ic.nhs.uk. No re-use should take place until you have formally asked for permission and we have informed you of our decision.