This National Statistics release on acute hospital activity and NHS beds is made available so that all of our customers can use the data. The data are made available under open government licence (external website), meaning the data can be used for any purpose that is appropriate.

These data can and have been used for several purposes including looking at the performance of services, planning for future needs, quality improvement, and how services are changing over time.

Each of the NHS Boards in Scotland needs local and national data. Data are used to plan and improve the services they deliver. Each NHS Board has analytical teams that use a variety of data sources, including data from Public Health Scotland (PHS), to understand how care is delivered. This intelligence is then used to identify opportunities to improve services.

Quality and performance reports are one example of the use of data. These are produced for each NHS Board’s corporate management team and their executive board. They would use this report to get a high-level overview of performance and quality improvement before identifying areas to focus on and potential strategies.

The diagram below shows some examples of what our other customers want from us.

Images showing examples of what our customers want from us. Image 1 Rose a member of the public. She needs data that is easy to understand so she can make decisions about her health and social care. Image 2 Benjamin an H&SC manager. He needs consistent data that is validated so that he can develop H&SC strategies. Image 3 Adil a nurse who needs focused data that is intuitive to access so that they can deliver a more responsive service to patients.

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