Hospital Care
Latest PublicationsPublished: 08 May 2012
Assessment of SMR01 Data 2010-2012
Published: 27 March 2012
Acute Hospital Activity and NHS Beds information; Year ending 31 March 2011 - Quarter ending December 2011
Published: 20 December 2011
Acute Hospital Activity and NHS Beds information; quarter ending September 2011
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June 2012 Acute Hospital Activity Publication
As part of its June 2012 Quarterly Acute Hospital Activity publication, ISD Scotland plans to release the following activity and beds information:
- Acute Hospital Activity - Same Day Surgery: Summary of BADS day surgery procedures data for April 2009 to December 2011 (monthly data). Data specifically relate to HEAT target.
- Acute Hospital Activity - Emergency Admissions for patients aged 65+: Summary of emergency admissions and bed days data for patients aged 65+ for years ending March 2002 to March 2011 (annual data). Data specifically relate to HEAT target.
- Acute Hospital Activity - Emergency Admissions for patients aged 75+: Summary of emergency admissions and bed days data for patients aged 75+ for years ending March 2002 to March 2011 (annual data). Data specifically relate to HEAT target.
- Available Beds - Summary of beds information for NHSScotland for quarters ending March 2010 to March 2012 (quarterly data).
- Acute Hospital Activity - Quarterly summary inpatient, day case and outpatient activity: Summary of hospital activity for NHSScotland for quarters ending March 2010 to March 2012 (quarterly data).
For more information on the Acute Hospital Activity and NHS Beds statistics publication contact: Ishbel Robertson, 0141 282 2276.
For further details on the current data submission issues, please refer to the Hospital Records Data Monitoring SMR Completeness page.
Introduction
This section of our website brings together information on different aspects of acute hospital care, sourced from hospital administrative systems across Scotland. Note that 'Acute' hospital care excludes obstetric, psychiatric and long stay care services that are covered elsewhere on our website.
The Hospital Care pages contain information on outpatient activity, inpatient and day case activity, the number of NHS beds, and information on hospital diagnoses and operations/procedures. Please use the relevant links on the left side of the page to explore the information available on acute hospital activity in Scotland.
The majority of information within the Hospital Care pages is currently classed as National Statistics. Data on outpatient activity for Nurse and Allied Health Professionals are classed as Official Statistics. This also applies to information on Day Surgery and Outpatients Procedures and Beds Statistics. Currently the statistics are produced in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, available on the UK Statistics Authority website.
These pages also include information relating to NHSScotland performance against HEAT targets for Long term Conditions, Emergency inpatient bed days for people aged 75 and over, Average length of stay for non-routine admissions and same-day surgery. Further information on HEAT can be found on the Scotland Performs Website.
Background
Acute hospitals provide a wide range of specialist care and treatment for patients. Typically, services offered in the NHS Acute sector are diverse. They include: consultation with specialist clinicians (consultants, nurses, dieticians, physiotherapists and a wide range of other professionals); emergency treatment following accidents; routine, complex and life saving surgery; specialist diagnostic procedures; and close observation and short-term care of patients with worrying health symptoms.
Another major part of the work of many acute hospitals involves the treatment of patients who have a health problem that requires urgent attention. Many of these patients will be treated within an Accident and Emergency (A&E) department and will not require a hospital admission. Typically a patient will be admitted as an emergency inpatient if their condition is considered by a doctor to be serious enough to warrant urgent hospital care and treatment.
In the past most reported patient activity has been attributed in national information systems to consultants and general practitioners, reflecting perhaps a more traditional view of the doctor as leader of the clinical team. This, however, has had the effect of obscuring or overlooking in nationally presented statistics the clinical contribution, in both hospitals and in the community, of nursing staff, allied health professionals and other healthcare professionals. In recent years, there has been a greater emphasis given towards enhancing the role of these professionals but the information systems required to account for many of these changes have not been available nationally.
Currently it is difficult to describe and quantify accurately the level of operations and clinical procedures carried out in outpatients. This is particularly relevant for monitoring how changes in clinical practice have enabled the transfer of certain clinical activities, previously requiring inpatient or day case admission, to outpatients.
Information relating to Allied Health Professional and Nurse-led clinic activity provides a wider perspective on the way clinical care is delivered in the modern health service.
That there are apparent anomalies between figures published within the Hospital Care, Waiting Times and Finance web pages.
- The figures for elective admissions and new outpatients in the Acute Hospital Activity publication are considerably higher than the equivalent information published on the Inpatient, Day case and Outpatient waiting times web pages. This is largely due to the use of different definitions between the two sets of figures. For example, Acute Hospital Activity information includes non-waiting list cases, which do not form part of the published Scotland figures in 'Waiting Times'.
- Figures for inpatient and day case activity in the Acute Hospital Activity publication differ slightly when compared to the equivalent information released in the Finance web pages. This is largely due to the use of different definitions for the two sets of figures. For example, the Finance "acute" activity excludes the specialty of Geriatric Medicine and patients treated in Neonatal and Younger Physically Disabled Units, which differs from the "acute" activity that is published in the Acute Hospital Activity pages. The Finance publication also excludes consultant-only transfers from the inpatient figures. ISD Scotland is carrying out further detailed investigations into these differences.
- Figures for attendances at A&E departments in the Acute Hospital Activity publication may differ to those figures released in the Accident and Emergency waiting times web pages. This is due to the use of different data sources for each publication. A&E attendance data on A&E waiting times pages are sourced from the A&E datamart which has collected episode and aggregate level data since June 2007. The Acute Hospital Activity pages use data from the ISD(S)1 data return which has collected aggregate level data for over 20 years.
For detailed information on data sources and clinical coding used within Hospital Care analysis please refer to the Data Sources and Clinical Coding document 
[970KB].
Caution should be taken when comparing Scottish hospital activity and beds data with information from the rest of the UK as there are likely to be key differences in analysis methodologies and data collection processes.
The Office of National Statistics United Kingdom Health Statistics 2010 publication provides a single point of reference for the comparison of key figures between the four constituent countries of the UK. Hospital activity and bed statistics can be found within chapters 6 and 8 respectively. Whilst the four UK countries worked collaboratively to maximise the comparability of the figures, it is important to note that differences between the countries remain in the way that data measures are collected and classified, and because of differences between countries in the organisation of health and social services. The report includes the details of these differences where relevant.
Hospital activity data from England, Wales and Northern Ireland are available separately but should not be directly compared with published data from Scotland.
England - NHS Outcomes and Performance, NHS Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)
Wales - Health and care statistics
Northern Ireland - Hospital Statistics & Research
