Outpatient coverage and data quality (DQ) tables

The NHS Information Centre first released outpatient data at the end of July 2006 when a report titled 'Reporting outpatient journeys: Hospital outpatient activity in 2003-04 and 2004-05' was published. The data was originally released on an 'experimental' basis.

Since then, the experimental label has been removed and since 2008 (2006-07 annual outpatient publication) the published data have been accredited as a National Statistic. This means the data within these specific tables has been produced in accordance with the 'Code of Practice for Official Statistics'.

The below data quality reports highlight changes since the 2004-05 dataset was released. This includes analysis of the coverage and completeness of the data, current developments and provides guidance for HES outpatient users.

Please note: The outpatient data quality reports from 2003-04 to 2005-06 HES compared HES data against KH09 and QM08 Department of Health aggregate returns. Following the retirement of these data collections, the outpatient data quality report 2009-10 focuses on the coverage and quality of outpatient field submissions over time from 2005-06 to 2009-10.

The Outpatient Data Quality report is not being produced for 2010-11, however data quality information can be found within the explanatory notes:

Notes on accompanying tables, 2003-04 and 2004-05

The Overall Coverage worksheet in the Coverage table (see link above) provides an analysis of coverage by trust, looking at attendances (first, subsequent and all) and comparing HES numbers against KH09/QM08 expectations for 2004-05. It also looks at DNAs on the same basis, thereby showing those trusts supplying and not supplying DNA data sets. Numbers of hospital and patient cancellations for those trusts supplying data are also included, but there is no comparative data on these.

The eDQRS DQ table, which derives from the eDQRS Data Quality Tool, provides an analysis for 2004-05 of the validity of completion of a range of key fields, including NHS Number, Postcode, Referral Date and Registered GP. You should note that the data relate to the state of Clearnet files for 2004-05 as at 12 May 2025 by which time a small number of trusts had submitted additional late data to that analysed in the rest of the report. There are some small inconsistencies in trust codes on the Clearnet files since the report presents uncleaned data.

Additional data quality tables have now been added which look at providers' use in 2004-05 of key fields where data quality problems are evident. It is intended that these, together with the Guidance to Users (in the Data Quality report), will enable an informed use of this important data source.

Further information

For further information on outpatient data quality, please contact us.