Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (quarterly)
Quarter ending 31 December 2022
A National Statistics publication for Scotland
- Published
- 30 May 2023
- Type
- Statistical report
- Author
- Public Health Scotland
Data files
This publication contains the following data files for a rolling five-year trend, broken down into quarters. Please note, only acute hospitals are included in the data files. Only acute specialties are included in the 'inpatient and day case' files. For further information, please see the Methods used to produce this data release section.
Outpatient activity
Data on outpatient appointments are for consultant-led activity only. These data files are split by location (NHS Board of treatment/residence, hospital and council area), specialty, age and sex, and by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile for new and 'Did Not Attend (DNA)' appointments, and split by specialty and NHS Board of treatment for 'return' and 'total' appointments.
The 'NHS Board of residence' data files below list activity by NHS Board of residence, whereas the 'NHS Board of treatment' data files list activity by NHS Board of treatment. 'NHS Board of residence' files only contain data for 'new' outpatient appointments, as the ISD(S)1 data source for 'return' outpatient appointments does not contain residence information. ISD(S)1 also does not record information on the age or sex of patients, nor the deprivation of the area in which they live.
Outpatients by NHS Board of residence to December 2022
Outpatients by NHS Board of treatment to December 2022
Outpatients cross-boundary flow to December 2022
For a full list of outpatient activity variables, please see the tables below.
Inpatient and day case activity
These data files are split by location (NHS Board of treatment/residence, hospital and council area), age and sex, and by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile for both episodes and stays. Specialty breakdowns are split by episodes and spells, rather than stays. For more information, please see the Methods used to produce this data release section. Measures include emergency admissions, elective admissions, inpatients, day cases, total inpatients and day cases, transfers and 'not specified'.
The 'NHS Board of residence' data files below list activity by NHS Board of residence, whereas the 'NHS Board of treatment' data files list activity by NHS Board of treatment.
Inpatient and day cases by NHS Board of residence to December 2022
Inpatient and day cases by NHS Board of treatment to December 2022
Inpatient and day case cross-boundary flow to December 2022
For a full list of inpatient and day case activity variables, please see the tables below.
Hospital beds to December 2022
Data for beds are only available by NHS Board of treatment, as the ISD(S)1 data source does not contain residence information. ISD(S)1 also does not record information on the age or sex of patients, nor the deprivation of the area in which they live. For further information please see the Methods used to produce this data release section.
Due to the way specialties are recorded for beds data, it is not possible to use the PHS beds statistics to estimate the total number of beds available for use by different services and/or departments. For example, selecting the Paediatric specialty grouping will only provide a partial picture of the staffed beds that are used for children’s services. This is because many beds used for children are not recorded under paediatric specialties and are instead recorded under more specific specialties, such as Haematology, Neurology and Respiratory Medicine. Furthermore, the specialty recorded for a bed depends partly on what the patient is being treated for: therefore, the mix of specialties may change over time for some wards. Similarly, analysis of the Accident & Emergency specialty bed usage will only provide inpatient and day case information on beds within the Accident & Emergency specialty, for example Accident & Emergency ward beds and observation beds staffed overnight. It will not provide information on the services/capacity within Accident & Emergency departments as a whole.
For a full list of hospital beds variables, please see the tables below.
File variables
Generic variables
| Variable name | Definition | Format | Missing value |
|---|---|---|---|
| quarter_date | Final date of the quarter | Date (dd/mm/yy) | NA |
| quarter_name | Quarter period in text format | Text (mmm – mmm-yy) | NA |
| hb_code | NHS Board code: either the nine-digit NHS Board code or 'scot' for Scotland. For the residence data files, the NHS Board code and name refers to the NHS Board of residence. For the treatment data files, the NHS Board code and name refers to the NHS Board of treatment. | Text | NA |
| hb_name | NHS Board name | Text | NA |
| loc_code | Location code: either the five-digit hospital code, nine-digit NHS Board or council code, or 'scot' for Scotland | Text | NA |
| loc_name | Location name | Text | NA |
| specialty | Two-digit specialty code | Text | NA |
| spec_name | Specialty name | Text | NA |
| sex_age | Sex (male or female) and ten-year age bands combined | Text | NA |
| simd | Quintiles of Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (1 = most deprived, 5 = least deprived) | Number | NA |
| hbtreat_currentdate | NHS Board of treatment code | Text | NA |
| hbtreat_name | NHS Board of treatment name | Text | NA |
| hbres_currentdate | NHS Board of residence code | Text | NA |
| hbres_name | NHS Board of residence name | Text | NA |
| attendances | Number of attendances | Number | NA |
| boundary_ind | Indicates whether the NHS Board of treatment is the same as the NHS Board of residence (0 = no, 1 = yes) | Number | NA |
Outpatients-specific variables
| Variable name | Definition | Format | Missing value |
|---|---|---|---|
| appt_type | Outpatient appointment type: ‘New’, ‘Return’, ‘All’ (total of ‘New’ + ‘Return’) or ‘DNA’ | Text | NA |
| count | Number of appointments | Number | NA |
| rate | Only available for DNAs. DNA rates are calculated from new appointments only and are presented as a percentage of the total number of outpatient appointments. | Number | NA |
Inpatients-specific variables
| Variable name | Definition | Format | Missing value |
|---|---|---|---|
| measure | Inpatient/admissions type: 'Elective Inpatients', 'Emergency Inpatients', 'Transfers', 'Not Specified', 'All Day cases', 'All Inpatients', 'All Inpatients' and 'Day cases' | Text | NA |
| eps | Number of episodes | Number | NA |
| spells | Number of specialty spells | Number | NA |
| stays | Number of stays | Number | NA |
| los | Total length of stay/spell | Number | NA |
| avlos | Average length of stay/spell | Number | NA |
Beds-specific variables
| Variable name | Definition | Format | Missing value |
|---|---|---|---|
| aasb | Quarterly available staffed bed days (number of available staffed bed days over the quarter) | Number | NA |
| tobd | Quarterly occupied bed days (total number of occupied bed days over the quarter) | Number | NA |
| asb | Daily average available staffed beds (average number of available staffed beds per day) | Number | NA |
| aob | Daily average occupied beds (average number of occupied beds per day) | Number | NA |
| p_occ | Percentage (%) occupancy | Number | NA |