This is a report on admitted patient care activity in English NHS hospitals and English NHS-commissioned activity in the independent sector. This annual publication covers the financial year ending March 2021. It contains final data and replaces the provisional data that are released each month[1].
The data are taken from the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data warehouse. HES contains records of all admissions, appointments and attendances for patients at NHS hospitals in England. The HES data used in this publication are called 'Finished Consultant Episodes', and each episode relates to a period of care for a patient under a single consultant at a single hospital. Therefore this report counts the number of episodes of care for admitted patients rather than the number of patients. This publication shows the number of episodes during the period, with a number of breakdowns including by patient's age, gender, diagnosis, procedure involved and by provider.
Hospital Adult Critical Care (ACC) data are now included within this report, following the discontinuation of the 'Hospital Adult Critical Care Activity' publication. The ACC data tables are not a designated National Statistic and they remain separate from the APC data tables. The ACC data used in this publication draws on records submitted by providers as an attachment to the admitted patient care record. These data show the number of adult critical care records during the period, with a number of breakdowns including admission details, discharge details, patient demographics and clinical information.
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.
Supplementary analysis has been produced, by NHS Digital, containing experimental statistics using the Paediatric Critical Care Minimum Data Set (PCCMDS) data, collected by NHS Digital, against activity published in NHS Reference Costs. This analysis seeks to assist users of the data in understanding the data quality of reported paediatric critical care data.
Also included within this release, is supplementary analysis that has been produced in addition to the Retrospective Review of Surgery for Urogynaecological Prolapse and Stress Urinary Incontinence using Tape or Mesh: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Experimental Statistics, April 2008 - March 2017. It contains a count of Finished Consultant Episodes (FCEs) where a procedure for urogynaecological prolapse or stress urinary incontinence using tape or mesh has been recorded during the April 2020 to March 2021 period.
