Main procedures and interventions: 4 character

The Main procedures and interventions: 4-character tables provide a complete breakdown of all the 4-character main procedure and intervention codes, giving an extremely detailed breakdown of all procedures and interventions.

The codes consist of a letter followed by two numbers with a single decimal point (eg A12.3) with a complete description of the procedure or intervention. The 4-character codes are a direct breakdown of the 3-character codes.

Special note

Procedure and interventions are recorded using OPCS-4. During 2006-07, the version of OPCS used to record procedures and interventions in HES changed from OPCS-4.2 to OPCS-4.3. Further revisions were made in 2007-08 bringing us to version 4.4. All codes that were in OPCS-4.2 & 4.3 remain in OPCS-4.4, new codes were added to reflect changing clinical practice.

Please see our Changes in clinical coding topic paper for more information.

Responsible statistician

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

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