Monthly HES data

Historically the HES database has been updated on a quarterly and annual cycle. Access to the provisional quarterly data has been restricted, whereas annual data has been published in the public domain as an accredited National Statistic. The timeliness of HES data is now a major constraint which has led to some customers and stakeholders expressing dissatisfaction with the data being out-of-date for decision-making.

In line with the 2008-09 NHS Operating Framework and the transition to monthly Payment by Results (PbR) reconciliation as of April 2008 HES will be updated on a cumulative monthly basis. To establish consistency with PbR, the monthly deadlines for HES and PbR are the same, with the PbR Q4 Freeze deadline being used for the 2008-09 HES annual refresh.

In future, a high level summary of monthly HES data will also be published each month, and monthly HES data will be used as the data source for a number of products (including some in the public domain). All monthly data will be clearly marked as 'provisional and subject to revision until the final annual refresh National Statistics annual publication'.

It is important to note that this change in data processing will not change the annual accredited National Statistics kite mark assigned to annual admitted patient care and outpatient HES. This will ensure that the research and statistical community can continue to confidently use HES data, whilst, improving the flow of monthly data for operational purposes.

HES currently comprises a record level data warehouse of patients treated or seen in hospital since April 1989 for three main national datasets: Admitted Patient care (hospital inpatients and day cases-APC), Outpatients (OP) (publicly published from 2004-05) and Accident and Emergency (A&E;) attendances (not yet published). HES is already a valued source of information on NHS hospital based activity used to support operational decision-making such as performance management, commissioning, planning and clinical outcome measures and these changes will enhance the relevance and use of HES for a variety of purposes.

If you have any queries regarding monthly HES please direct questions to [email protected].