For the 2008-09 financial year, Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) has collected more than 74 million records detailing outpatient appointments delivered by NHS hospitals in England or performed in the independent sector and commissioned by the English NHS.
The outpatients' data set contains individual records for all outpatient appointments occurring in England including details such as the type of attendance ie whether it was a first or follow up attendance or the main specialty ie the specialty under which the consultant with prime responsibility for the patient is registered.