Hospital Episode Statistics

ONS Minimum Cancer Dataset | National Clinical Audit Data

The national cancer data repository contains an extract of admitted patient Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) for patients with a diagnosis of cancer recorded in HES (this is not all patients who appear in the cancer registry dataset).

The fields included in the HES extract are shown below. Full details of each field can be found in the HES data dictionary.

Patient

Field nameDescription of contents
category Administrative & legal status of patient
admincat Administrative category
startage Age at start of episode
dob Date of birth - patient
ethnos Ethnic category
lopatid Local patient identifier
newnhsno NHS number
extract_hesid Patient identifier - HES generated
postdist Postcode district of patient's residence
homeadd Postcode of patient
sex Sex of patient

Admissions

Field nameDescription of contents
admidate Date of admission
elecdate Date of decision to admit
admimeth Method of admission
admisorc Source of admission
firstreg First regular day or night admission
elecdur Waiting time

Discharges

Field nameDescription of contents
disdate Date of discharge
disdest Destination on discharge
dismeth Method of discharge

Episodes and Spells

Field nameDescription of contents
bedyear Bed days within the year
spelbgin Beginning of spell
epiend Date episode ended
epistart Date episode started
speldur Duration of spell
spelend End of spell
epidur Episode duration
epiorder Episode order
epitype Episode type

Clinical

Field nameDescription of contents
diag_nn All Diagnosis codes
oper_nn All Operative procedure codes
opdte_nn Date of operation
operstat Operation status code
classpat Patient classification
intmanig Intended management
mainspef Main specialty
tretspef Treatment specialty

Healthcare resource groups

Field nameDescription of contents
domproc Dominant procedure
hrg_3.1 Healthcare resource group: version 3.1
hrg_3.5 Healthcare resource group: version 3.5

Organisation

Field nameDescription of contents
purcode Commissioner code
purval Commissioner code status
purro Commissioner's Regional Office
purstha Commissioner's Strategic Health Authority
gppracha Health Authority area where patient's GP was registered
pcgcode Primary care group
pctcode02 Primary care trust of responsibility - historic
pctcode06 Primary care trust of responsibility - current
gpprpct Primary Care Trust area where patient's GP was registered
procode Provider code - 5 character
procode3/procodet Provider code - 3 character
sitetret Site code of treatment
protype Provider type
gppracro Regional Office area where patient's GP was registered
gpprstha Strategic Health Authority area where patient's GP was registered

Geographical

Field nameDescription of contents
oacode Census Output Area, 2001
6 character oaward Census Output Area, 2001
rescty County of residence
currward & resladst Current electoral ward
ward91 Electoral ward in 1991
resgor Government office region of residence
gortreat Government office region of treatment
resha Health Authority of residence
hatreat Health Authority of treatment
resladst Local authority district
pctnhs Patient's Health Authority of residence, provided by NHS
respct02 Patient's Primary Care Trust of residence - historic
respct06 Patient's Primary Care Trust of residence – current
resstha02 Patient's Strategic Health Authority of residence - historic
resstha06 Patient's Strategic Health Authority of residence - current
pcttreat Primary Care Trust area of treatment
rotreat Region of treatment
resro Regional Office of residence
sthatret Strategic Health Authority area of treatment

Practitioner

Field nameDescription of contents
gpprac Code of GP practice
consult Consultant code
reggmp Code of patient's registered or referring general medical practitioner
referorg Referring organisation code