Hospital Episodes and Statistics (HES)

Public Health Observatories (PHO) were established as regional safe havens for Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data following Shifting the Balance of Power and a widening of access to HES. As part of this, each PHO has access to an on-line HES system and to its regional extract.

APHO has established a HES group which has representatives from all PHOs and we have recently agreed to set up a process to work together at producing standard HES outputs nationally.

HES Group Mission Statement

"Good quality information is paramount in providing good services and planning for the future. The aim of the HES group at APHO is to provide information about key public health issues to a broad range of users, such as health care organisations and the public. By working collaboratively we aim to share our knowledge and expertise to ensure consistency in data and high standards of analysis which results in good quality information."

What is HES?

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are record level patient data collected by the Department of Health from every NHS hospital in England and Wales. Each year approximately 13 million HES records for inpatients and day cases are generated, containing individual patient details such as age, sex, dates of admission and discharge, diagnoses, treatments and operations, NHS number and postcode.

HES data provides a comprehensive picture of inpatient care that can support public health analysis, planning and resource allocation, benchmarking, clinical audit, monitoring and performance management and research. It can offer a longitudinal picture of particular conditions or procedures. It can support local NHS analysis of activity and allows comparisons between Trusts, PCTs, SHAs, LAs, etc. In addition it also provides data for the construction of a large percentage of the NHS Performance Indicators which summarise quality and performance in the NHS.

Uses identified for HES data by the Department of Health include:

• to develop, monitor and evaluate departmental policies
• to assess the effective delivery of care
• to identify public health issues
• to monitor improvements in public health
• to determine fair access to health care
• to improve the patient/carer experience
• to examine health outcomes
• for public and parliamentary accountability
• for central and local NHS management
• in resource acquisition and distribution
• for general medical research and statistical functions

HES is not a live system and it usually takes between 9 and 12 months for a full financial year to be available through on-line HES or the safe haven extract. So, for example, complete 2006/07 data would not be available until December 2007 or thereabouts.

From December 2007, we aim to have access to national level data for the full year 2006/7 plus outpatient data from 2003/04 to 2006/07. We are currently testing A&E data plus some new national datasets of spell-based data and multiyear time series data, and we will shortly be receiving HES data linked to ONS mortality data.

Regional HES contacts in English PHOs

• Eastern Region PHO -
• East Midlands PHO -
• London PHO -
• North East PHO -
• North West PHO -
• South East PHO -
• South West PHO -
• Yorkshire and Humber PHO -
• West Midlands PHO -