Background

People attending hospitals can be seen in various hospital settings.

This can involve a patient attending hospital, and either being admitted or being seen as an outpatient. Outpatient clinics are generally consultant led, however clinics led by nurse and other health professionals are a growing feature in a changing NHSScotland. For those patients requiring specialist treatment, such as a clinical procedure (operation) needed to diagnose a health problem, or a surgical operation carried out as part of the treatment provided, their care is likely to involve either an extended outpatient clinic appointment (for relative minor procedures), a day case admission where they require a longer period of recovery, or an inpatient admission where they require to stay in hospital.

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 quantity 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 emerging findings from new or enhanced data collection  designed to provide a wider perspective on the way clinical care is delivered in the modern health service are also available.

Related links to other areas of the web are also available.