The National Health Service is the largest employer in the UK but is not a single homogenous organisation. Following devolution and major re-organisations in the past few years, the ways in which it is organised in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are continuing to diverge.

Our database covers senior and mid-level posts across all functions and areas of the NHS. This includes both the Management and Medical/Clinical sides.

England - the NHS has undergone considerable re-organisation since 2011 with Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts being replaced by a new structure of healthcare provision. The vast majority of services are now provided or commissioned at a local level via groups of GP Surgeries, known as Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG's), or at a secondary care level via Hospital Trusts. Public Health services are now provided by Local Authorities who also work with CCG's via Health and Wellbeing Boards to commission services jointly. There are also a number of new 'Community Healthcare' providers, in the form of Health and Care Trusts (NHS organisations) and Community Interest Companies (Social Enterprises). These organisations provide a range of community, mental health, primary care and nursing functions and sit alongside Local Authorities, CCG's and Secondary Care providers in many areas. These, along with some Secondary Care Acute Trusts which inherited them following the dissolution of PCT's run Community Hospitals, Clinics, Walk in Centres and some Dental services.

Scotland - has a simplified structure with Scottish Health Boards having control of all operational responsibilities within their geographical area. The Community Health Partnerships provide a range of community health services and they work closely with primary health care professionals as well as hospitals and local councils.

Wales - has established Local Health Boards and with the exception of one remaining NHS Trust, they deal with all Primary and Secondary Healthcare services.

Northern Ireland - also has single organisations - Health & Social Care Trusts, which along with several other national bodies, deal with co-ordinating and providing all the regions Healthcare services.

Introduction: Although hospitals are key health service providers, their financial ties to drug companies have been rarely scrutinised. In developing this body of work, we examine industry payments for non-research activities to National Health Service (NHS) trusts – hospital groupings providing publicly funded secondary and tertiary care in England. Methods: We extracted data from the industry-run Disclosure UK database, analysing payment distribution descriptively and identifying trends in medians with the Jonckheere-Terpstra test. The payment value and number per NHS trust were explained using random effects models. Results: Between 2015 and 2018, 116 companies reported paying £60,253,421.86 to 235 trusts. As a share of payments to all healthcare organisations the number of payments to trusts rose from 38.64% to 39.48%, but their value dropped from 33.01% to 23.61%. While the number of all payment types rose, fees for service and consultancy and contributions to costs of events increased by 61.55% and 29.43%, respectively. The median payment values decreased significantly for trusts overall, including those with lower autonomy from central government; providing acute services; and from four of the eight regions of England. The random effects model showed that trusts with all other service profiles received a significantly lower value of payments on average than acute trusts; and trusts from East England received significantly less than those from London. However, trusts enjoying greater autonomy from government did not receive significantly more payments than others. Trusts also received significantly lower (but not fewer) payments in 2018 than in 2015. Conclusion: NHS trusts were losing importance as funding targets relative to other healthcare organisations. Industry payment strategies shifted towards engaging with NHS trusts using events sponsorship, consultancies, and smaller payments. Industry prioritised payments to trusts with specific service and geographical profiles. More granular disclosure is necessary to understand the role of corporate funding across the health system.

Content

This dataset is the complete UK NHS (National Health Service) Hospital Database including geospatial data.

Acknowledgements

Data is available on the NHS website under the Open Government Licence.

Cover photo by Camilo Jimenez on Unsplash Unsplash Images are distributed under a unique Unsplash License.

Published: 28 November 2017 - This is a report on outpatient activity in English NHS hospitals and English NHS-commissioned activity in the independent sector. This annual publication covers the financial year ending March 2017. It contains final data and replaces the provisional data that are published each month. The data are taken from the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data warehouse. HES contains records of all admissions, appointments and attendances for patients admitted to NHS hospitals in England. This publication includes analysis of more than 100 million outpatient appointments recorded in HES data during the 12 month period. A number of breakdowns are provided including by patient's age, gender, whether the appointment was attended or not and by provider. Note that this report counts the number of outpatient appointments rather than the number of patients. The purpose of this publication is to inform and support strategic and policy-led processes for the benefit of patient care. This document will also be of interest to researchers, journalists and members of the public interested in NHS hospital activity in England.

Data for this publication are extracted each month as a snapshot in time from the Primary Care Registration database within the NHAIS (National Health Application and Infrastructure Services) system. This release is an accurate snapshot as at 1 April 2024. This publication also includes monthly data outputs from the Personal Demographic Service, which will become the data source for this publication from May 2024. More information about the data source change can be found in the Data Quality Statement. GP Practice; Primary Care Network (PCN); Sub Integrated Care Board Locations (SICBL); Integrated Care Board (ICB) and NHS England Commissioning Region level data are released in single year of age (SYOA) and 5-year age bands, both of which finish at 95+, split by gender. In addition, organisational mapping data is available to derive PCN; SICBL; ICB and Commissioning Region associated with a GP practice and is updated each month to give relevant organisational mapping. Quarterly publications in January, April, July and October will include Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) populations.

Data from NHS trusts about X-Rays, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.

DECOVID, a multi-centre research consortium, was founded in March 2020 by two United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trusts (comprising three acute care hospitals) and three research institutes/universities: University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB), University College London Hospitals (UCLH), University of Birmingham, University College London and The Alan Turing Institute. The original aim of DECOVID was to share harmonised electronic health record (EHR) data from UCLH and UHB to enable researchers affiliated with the DECOVID consortium to answer clinical questions to support the COVID-19 response.   ​​   ​​The DECOVID database has now been placed within the infrastructure of PIONEER, a Health Data Research (HDR) UK funded data hub that contains data from acute care providers, to make the DECOVID database accessible to external researchers not affiliated with the DECOVID consortium.  

This highly granular dataset contains 256,804 spells and 165,414 hospitalised patients. The data includes demographics, serial physiological measurements, laboratory test results, medications, procedures, drugs, mortality and readmission.

Geography: UHB is one of the largest NHS Trusts in England, providing direct acute services & specialist care across four hospital sites, with 2.2 million patient episodes per year, 2750 beds & > 120 ITU bed capacity. UCLH provides first-class acute and specialist services in six hospitals in central London, seeing more than 1 million outpatient and 100,000 admissions per year. Both UHB and UCLH have fully electronic health records. Data has been harmonised using the OMOP data model. Data set availability: Data access is available via the PIONEER Hub for projects which will benefit the public or patients. This can be by developing a new understanding of disease, by providing insights into how to improve care, or by developing new models, tools, treatments, or care processes. Data access can be provided to NHS, academic, commercial, policy and third sector organisations. Applications from SMEs are welcome. There is a single data access process, with public oversight provided by our public review committee, the Data Trust Committee. Contact pioneer@uhb.nhs.uk or visit www.pioneerdatahub.co.uk for more details.

Available supplementary data: Matched controls; ambulance and community data. Unstructured data (images). We can provide the dataset in other common data models and can build synthetic data to meet bespoke requirements.

Available supplementary support: Analytics, model build, validation & refinement; A.I. support. Data partner support for ETL (extract, transform & load) processes. Bespoke and “off the shelf” Trusted Research Environment (TRE) build and run. Consultancy with clinical, patient & end-user and purchaser access/ support. Support for regulatory requirements. Cohort discovery. Data-driven trials and “fast screen” services to assess population size.

These statistics are derived from the National Community Child Health Database (NCCHD). This data source is provided to the Welsh Government by Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW). The NCCHD was established in 2004 and consists of anonymised records for all children born, resident or treated in Wales and born after 1987. The database brings together data from local Community Child Health System databases which are held by local health boards (LHBs), and its main function is to provide an online record of a child’s health and care from birth to leaving school age. The statistics used in this release are based on the data recorded at birth and shortly after birth. Full details of every data item available on both the Maternity Indicators dataset and National Community Child Health Database are available through the NHS Wales Data Dictionary: http://www.datadictionary.wales.nhs.uk/#!WordDocuments/datasetstructure20.htm. Gestational age is based on the best estimate available for when pregnancy started, based on either date of last menstrual period or from an ultrasound scan.

Trust-Level Data: Data is broken down by individual NHS Trusts, enabling regional comparisons, benchmarking, and targeted analysis of specific Trusts. Medicine Identification: Medicines in the dataset are identified using Virtual Medicinal Product (VMP) codes from the Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d): VMP_PRODUCT_NAME: The name of the Virtual Medicinal Product (VMP) as defined by the dm+d, which includes key details about the product. For example: Paracetamol 500mg tablets. VMP_SNOMED_CODE: The code for the Virtual Medicinal Product (VMP), providing a unique identifier for each product. For example: 42109611000001109 represents Paracetamol 500mg tablets. By making this data publicly available, the NHSBSA aims to enhance transparency, accountability, and the effective use of NHS resources. Overview of Service

This report shows monthly numbers of NHS Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) staff working in NHS Trusts and CCGs in England (excluding primary care staff). Data are available as headcount and full-time equivalents and for all months from 30 September 2009 onwards. These data are an accurate summary of the validated data extracted from the NHS HR and Payroll system. Additional statistics on staff in NHS Trusts and CCGs and information for NHS Support Organisations and Central Bodies are published each: September (showing June statistics) December/January (showing September statistics) March (showing December statistics) June (showing March statistics) Quarterly NHS Staff Earnings, monthly NHS Staff Sickness Absence reports, and data relating to the General Practice workforce and the Independent Healthcare Provider workforce are also available via the Related Links below. An issue with the linkage of unique identifiers for several thousand staff records within the ESR database was identified for the April 2022 data. This does not appear to have had a noticeable effect on the overall workforce numbers presented in this publication, and underlying records in ESR were corrected for the May 2022 provisional data. We welcome feedback on the methodology and tables within this publication. Please email us with your comments and suggestions, clearly stating Monthly HCHS Workforce as the subject heading, via enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk or 0300 303 5678.

Chi squared test, not including missing data for each variable other than NHS number*At least one social risk factor including drug use, homelessness, alcohol misuse/ abuse, prisonDescriptive analysis of case notifications dataset for records with and without an NHS number.

The National Highway System (NHS) dataset and its geometries was updated on March 27, 2025 from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). The National Highway System consists of roadways important to the nation’s economy, defense, and mobility. The National Highway System (NHS) includes the following subsystems of roadways: Interstate - The Eisenhower Interstate System of highways, Other Principal Arterials - highways in rural and urban areas which provide access between an arterial and a major port, airport, public transportation facility, or other intermodal transportation facility, Strategic Highway Network (STRAHNET) - a network of highways which are important to the United States’ strategic defense policy and which provide defense access, continuity and emergency capabilities for defense purposes, Major Strategic Highway Network Connectors - highways which provide access between major military installations and highways which are part of the Strategic Highway Network, Intermodal Connectors - highways providing access between major intermodal facilities and the other four subsystems making up the National Highway System. A specific highway route may be on more than one subsystem. A data dictionary, or other source of attribute information, is accessible at https://doi.org/10.21949/1529838

Background:
The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) is a large-scale, multi-purpose longitudinal dataset providing information about babies born at the beginning of the 21st century, their progress through life, and the families who are bringing them up, for the four countries of the United Kingdom. The original objectives of the first MCS survey, as laid down in the proposal to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in March 2000, were:

• to chart the initial conditions of social, economic and health advantages and disadvantages facing children born at the start of the 21st century, capturing information that the research community of the future will require
• to provide a basis for comparing patterns of development with the preceding cohorts (the National Child Development Study, held at the UK Data Archive under GN 33004, and the 1970 Birth Cohort Study, held under GN 33229)
• to collect information on previously neglected topics, such as fathers' involvement in children's care and development
• to focus on parents as the most immediate elements of the children's 'background', charting their experience as mothers and fathers of newborn babies in the year 2000, recording how they (and any other children in the family) adapted to the newcomer, and what their aspirations for her/his future may be
• to emphasise intergenerational links including those back to the parents' own childhood
• to investigate the wider social ecology of the family, including social networks, civic engagement and community facilities and services, splicing in geo-coded data when available

Additional objectives subsequently included for MCS were:

• to provide control cases for the national evaluation of Sure Start (a government programme intended to alleviate child poverty and social exclusion)
• to provide samples of adequate size to analyse and compare the smaller countries of the United Kingdom, and include disadvantaged areas of England

Further information about the MCS can be found on the Centre for Longitudinal Studies web pages.

The content of MCS studies, including questions, topics and variables can be explored via the CLOSER Discovery website.

The first sweep (MCS1) interviewed both mothers and (where resident) fathers (or father-figures) of infants included in the sample when the babies were nine months old, and the second sweep (MCS2) was carried out with the same respondents when the children were three years of age. The third sweep (MCS3) was conducted in 2006, when the children were aged five years old, the fourth sweep (MCS4) in 2008, when they were seven years old, the fifth sweep (MCS5) in 2012-2013, when they were eleven years old, the sixth sweep (MCS6) in 2015, when they were fourteen years old, and the seventh sweep (MCS7) in 2018, when they were seventeen years old. End User Licence versions of MCS studies:
The End User Licence (EUL) versions of MCS1, MCS2, MCS3, MCS4, MCS5, MCS6 and MCS7 are held under UK Data Archive SNs 4683, 5350, 5795, 6411, 7464, 8156 and 8682 respectively. The longitudinal family file is held under SN 8172.

Sub-sample studies:
Some studies based on sub-samples of MCS have also been conducted, including a study of MCS respondent mothers who had received assisted fertility treatment, conducted in 2003 (see EUL SN 5559). Also, birth registration and maternity hospital episodes for the MCS respondents are held as a separate dataset (see EUL SN 5614).


How to access genetic and/or bio-medical sample data from a range of longitudinal surveys:
For information on how to access biomedical data from MCS that are not held at the UKDS, see the CLS Genetic data and biological samples webpage.

Secure Access datasets:
Secure Access versions of the MCS have more restrictive access conditions than versions available under the standard End User Licence or Special Licence (see 'Access data' tab above).

Secure Access versions of the MCS include:

• detailed sensitive variables not available under EUL. These have been grouped thematically and are held under SN 8753 (socio-economic, accommodation and occupational data), SN 8754 (self-reported health, behaviour and fertility), SN 8755 (demographics, language and religion) and SN 8756 (exact participation dates). These files replace previously available studies held under SNs 8456 and 8622-8627
  
• detailed geographical identifier files which are grouped by sweep held under SN 7758 (MCS1), SN 7759 (MCS2), SN 7760 (MCS3), SN 7761 (MCS4), SN 7762 (MCS5 2001 Census Boundaries), SN 7763 (MCS5 2011 Census Boundaries), SN 8231 (MCS6 2001 Census Boundaries), SN 8232 (MCS6 2011 Census Boundaries), SN 8757 (MCS7), SN 8758 (MCS7 2001 Census Boundaries) and SN 8759 (MCS7 2011 Census Boundaries). These files replace previously available files grouped by geography SN 7049 (Ward level), SN 7050 (Lower Super Output Area level), and SN 7051 (Output Area level)
• linked education administrative datasets for Key Stages 1, 2, 4 and 5 held under SN 8481 (England). This replaces previously available datasets for Key Stage 1 (SN 6862) and Key Stage 2 (SN 7712)
  
• linked education administrative datasets for Key Stage 1 held under SN 7414 (Scotland)
• linked education administrative dataset for Key Stages 1, 2, 3 and 4 under SN 9085 (Wales)
  
• linked NHS Patient Episode Database for Wales (PEDW) for MCS1 – MCS5 held under SN 8302
• linked Scottish Medical Records data held under SNs 8709, 8710, 8711, 8712, 8713 and 8714;
• Banded Distances to English Grammar Schools for MCS5 held under SN 8394
• linked Health Administrative Datasets (Hospital Episode Statistics) for England for years 2000-2019 held under SN 9030
• linked Health Administrative Datasets (SAIL) for Wales held under SN 9310
  
• linked Hospital of Birth data held under SN 5724.

The linked education administrative datasets held under SNs 8481,7414 and 9085 may be ordered alongside the MCS detailed geographical identifier files only if sufficient justification is provided in the application.

Researchers applying for access to the Secure Access MCS datasets should indicate on their ESRC Accredited Researcher application form the EUL dataset(s) that they also wish to access (selected from the MCS Series Access web page).

The Millennium Cohort Study: NHS Patient Episode Database for Wales (PEDW), Linked Administrative Datasets: ICD-10 Codes in Continuous Spells, 2001-2012: Secure Access includes inpatient and day case data collected by NHS Wales, when cohort members were aged between 0-11 years old. This summary dataset contains derived variables for the number of hospitalisations in each age year, and the ICD-10 (10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems) chapter relevant to the diagnosis.

Chi squared test, not including missing data for each variable other than NHS number*It was not possible to calculate the exact age for these records as the date of their laboratory result was not recorded, but date of birth was available for all records.Descriptive analysis of laboratory dataset for records with and without an NHS number.

The iCARE SDE is a cloud-based, big data analytics platform sitting within Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (ICHT) NHS infrastructure. This, combined with the iCARE Team’s robust method of data de-identification, make the Environment an incredibly secure platform. The fact that it can be accessed remotely using the Trust’s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure means that researchers can perform their work remotely and are therefore not constrained by location. (imperial.dcs@nhs.net)

The iCARE SDE enables clinicians, researchers and data scientists to access large-scale, highly curated databases for the purposes of research, clinical audit and service evaluation. The iCARE SDE enables advanced data analytics through a scalable virtual infrastructure supporting Azure Machine Learning, Python, R and STATA and a large variety of snowflake SQL tooling.

The main iCARE data model is a HRA REC approved database covering all routinely captured information from Imperial College Healthcare Trust (ICHT) Electronic Health Record and 39 linked (at the patient-level) clinical and non-clinical systems. It contains data for all patients from 2015 onwards and is updated weekly as a minimum, and close to real-time when required. It includes inpatient, outpatient, A&E, pathology, cancer, imaging treatments, e-prescribing, procedures, clinical notes, Consent, clinical trials, tissue bank samples, Patient safety and incidents, Patient experience, Staffing and environment data.

Data can also be linked to primary care data for the 2.8million population in Northwest London, HRA REC approved, Whole Systems Integrated Care (WSIC) hosted database and other health and social care providers when approved.

On a project-by-project basis the model can be expanded to curate and include new data (including multi-modality data), that is either captured routinely or through approved research and clinical trials. There are streamlined processes to approve and curate new data (imperial.dataaccessrequest@nhs.net) and data will always remain hosted in the SDE.

With healthcare database selections covering NHS Management, Doctors, General Practice, Dentists, Care Homes and Private Hospitals, contact lists can be purchased by job role, seniority level, size and region.

E.g. house number and street name*E.g. city.Description of missing data on variables used for the linkage from the laboratory, case notifications and an example pre-entry screening dataset, by NHS number availability and validity.

Initially this data is collected during a patient's time at hospital as part of the Commissioning Data Set (CDS). This is submitted to NHS Digital for processing and is returned to healthcare providers as the Secondary Uses Service (SUS) data set and includes information relating to payment for activity undertaken. It allows hospitals to be paid for the care they deliver. This same data can also be processed and used for non-clinical purposes, such as research and planning health services. Because these uses are not to do with direct patient care, they are called 'secondary uses'. This is the SUS data set. SUS data covers all NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England, including: 1. private patients treated in NHS hospitals 2. patients resident outside of England 3. care delivered by treatment centres (including those in the independent sector) funded by the NHS

Each SUS record contains a wide range of information about an individual patient admitted to an NHS hospital, including: 1. clinical information about diagnoses and operations 2. patient information, such as age group, gender and ethnicity 3. administrative information, such as dates and methods of admission and discharge 4. geographical information such as where patients are treated and the area where they live

NHS Digital apply a strict statistical disclosure control in accordance with the NHS Digital protocol, to all published SUS data. This suppresses small numbers to stop people identifying themselves and others, to ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained.

Who SUS is for SUS provides data for the purpose of healthcare analysis to the NHS, government and others including:

The Secondary Users Service (SUS) database is made up of many data items relating to A&E care delivered by NHS hospitals in England. Many of these items form part of the national Commissioning Data Set (CDS), and are generated by the patient administration systems within each hospital. 1. national bodies and regulators, such as the Department of Health, NHS England, Public Health England, NHS Improvement and the CQC 2. local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) 3. provider organisations 4. government departments 5. researchers and commercial healthcare bodies 6. National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) 7. patients, service users and carers 8. the media

Uses of the statistics The statistics are known to be used for: 1. national policy making 2. benchmarking performance against other hospital providers or CCGs
3. academic research 4. analysing service usage and planning change 5. providing advice to ministers and answering a wide range of parliamentary questions 6. national and local press articles 7. international comparison

More information can be found at https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-tools-and-services/data-services/hospital-episode-statistics https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-accident--emergency-activity"

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) publishes Secondary Care Medicines Data on behalf of NHS England (NHSE). This dataset provides 'Provisional' Secondary Care Medicines data for all NHS Acute, Teaching, Specialist, Mental Health, and Community Trusts in England. It provides information on pharmacy stock control, reflecting processed medicines data. RX Info is responsible for refreshing the Provisional data at the close of each financial year to include backtracking adjustments. The data is 'Finalised' to provide validated and complete figures for each reporting period, incorporating any updates and corrections throughout the year. The Finalised dataset serves as the definitive record for each month and year, offering the most accurate information on medicines issued. While we do not analyse changes, users can compare the finalised data with provisional data to identify any discrepancies. Key Components of the Data Quantities of Medicines Issued: Details the total quantities of medicines stock control via NHS Secondary Care services. Indicative Costs: Actual costs cannot be displayed in the dataset as NHS Hospital pricing contracts and NICE Patient Access Schemes are confidential. The indicative cost of medicines is derived from current medicines pricing data held in NHSBSA data systems (Common Drug Reference and dm+d), calculated to VMP level. Indicative costs are calculated using: Community pharmacy reimbursement prices for generic medicines. List prices for branded medicines. Care should be taken when interpreting and analysing this indicative cost as it does not reflect the net actual cost of NHS Trusts, which will differ due to the application of confidential discounts, rebates, or procurement agreements paid by hospitals when purchasing medicines. Standardisation with SNOMED CT and dm+d: SNOMED CT (Systematised Nomenclature of Medicine - Clinical Terms) is used to enhance the dataset’s compatibility with electronic health record systems and clinical decision support tools. SNOMED CT is a globally recognised coding system that provides precise definitions for clinical terms, ensuring interoperability across healthcare systems. Trust-Level Data: Data is broken down by individual NHS Trusts, enabling regional comparisons, benchmarking, and targeted analysis of specific Trusts. Medicine Identification: Medicines in the dataset are identified using Virtual Medicinal Product (VMP) codes from the Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d): VMP_PRODUCT_NAME: The name of the Virtual Medicinal Product (VMP) as defined by the dm+d, which includes key details about the product. For example: Paracetamol 500mg tablets. VMP_SNOMED_CODE: The code for the Virtual Medicinal Product (VMP), providing a unique identifier for each product. For example: 42109611000001109 represents Paracetamol 500mg tablets. You can access the finalised files in our Finalised Secondary Care Medicines Data (SCMD) with indicative price dataset. Further guidance on Secondary Care Medicines Data For more context on the Secondary Care Medicines Data, the following resources may be helpful: Secondary Care Medicines Data Release Guidance (Word, 78.3KB) What is the difference between SCMD data and Rx-info data? Overview of Service

This data covers a time period during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has affected NHS services. During the pandemic, hospital services in Wales were reorganised due to enhanced infection prevention and control measures, and the need to treat COVID and non-COVID patients separately. Subsequently, planned operations were significantly reduced and non-urgent emergency admissions decreased. As a result, hospitals experienced lower occupancy rates in 2020-21 than in previous years. This table presents summary information, from the QueSt1 return, provided by the NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS), on bed use in Wales. Data presented in this statistical release are an annual average and illustrate yearly changing occupancy rates and bed availability. Therefore, these data won’t reflect changing levels of activity throughout the year. The data do not present data on average length of stay, turnover interval and bed use factor. These indicators are calculated using data on deaths and discharges which is no longer collected via the QS1 return, and need to be derived from the Patient Episode Database for Wales (PEDW) for 2012-13 onwards. When carrying out more detailed analysis of the deaths and discharges data from PEDW in preparation for the 2012-13 release, data quality issues arose in relation to assessment unit (AU) activity reporting in QS1 and in PEDW and how this should be treated in the data. It was identified that there is inconsistency in the reporting of assessment units, with some LHBs reporting AU activity within their beds data, and others omitting them. This inconsistency in the reporting of AU activity is also likely to affect historic data. Please find information on changes to the data published on NHS beds, as per the given weblink.