What is HES?

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) is a data warehouse containing details of all admissions to NHS hospitals in England. It includes private patients treated in NHS hospitals, patients who were resident outside of England and care delivered by treatment centres (including those in the independent sector) funded by the NHS. HES also contains details of all NHS outpatient appointments in England.

HES is the data source for a wide range of healthcare analysis for the NHS, Government and many other organisations and individuals. It contains admitted patient care data from 1989 onwards, with more than 12 million new records added each year, and outpatient attendance data from 2003 onwards, with more than 40 million new records added each year.

The HES Service and the HESonline website are run by Northgate Information Solutions on behalf of The NHS Information Centre for health and social care.