NHS Performs provides information on a range of different indicators for a number of topics. The full list of topics and indicators is shown here along with details of relevant definitions associated with the figures presented, related background information, any known limitations or data quality issues, data sources and links to appropriate data publications or technical documents.
If the value 'N/A' is shown for an indicator this signifies that the information is not available or not applicable.
Weekly
The weekly statistics cover only Emergency Departments (larger A&E services that typically provide a 24 hour consultant led service) and report on approximately 83% of all Accident and Emergency activity. Recent weeks’ figures are derived from aggregate returns submitted by NHS Boards, these figures are official statistics intended to provide timely information. These aggregate statistics are subject to only basic quality assurance checks. NHS Boards are required to confirm to ISD that the statistics are accurate. To improve the accuracy of the trend, the weekly statistics are updated monthly using the most recent month available on ISD’s A&E datamart. This complements the Accident and Emergency monthly activity figures which are also available within NHS Performs.
The Immediate Assessment Unit (IAU) at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital is not part of the emergency department and waiting times in that unit are not included in these figures.
Full information on the use of other units that provide A&E services such as minor injury units, small hospitals and health centres in rural areas is not currently included in the weekly figures. Complete information is reported through ISD Scotland's monthly reporting of Accident and Emergency activity and waiting times:
Emergency Department weekly activity and waiting times information published previously by the Scottish Government can be found online at:
Historical weekly Emergency Department activity and waiting times information
ISD Scotland has revised how these statistics are compiled and presented. The revised figures were first released on 27 September 2016.
Monthly
The monthly Accident & Emergency figures only include 'New' and 'Unplanned Return' attendances at A&E, i.e. excludes those who are 'Recall' or 'Planned Return'.
A&E sites submit data as either episode level files containing a detailed record for each attendance or as aggregate files containing monthly summary attendance and compliance figures only. See 'List of Sites' for details.
The figures include information on all A&E sites across NHS Scotland where possible.
Some hospitals may have begun submitting episode level data throughout the time period of this report. See hospital site list for details.
Since 2007, the national standard for A&E waiting times is that new and unplanned return attendances at an A&E service should be seen and then admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
For information on how the Scottish Government (SG) plans to monitor NHS Boards’ performance within A&E Services, please see the NHS Local Development Plan standards.
Emergency Department (ED) is a site that provides a 24 hour consultant led service.
The waiting time is defined as the time of arrival until the time of discharge, admission or transfer.
Percentage of attendances resulting in hospital admission is based on the number of admissions to the same hospital as the Accident and Emergency department.
Some sites in NHS Highland which supply aggregate data have on occasion not split return attendances into unplanned and planned return attendances, so that only new attendances have been included. This issue will affect NHS Highland's total attendance figure by around 1-4% per month and has a negligible effect on Scotland's total attendances.
Due to an ongoing technical issue data for Broadford Hospital and Lawson Hospital will be an undercount starting from July 2022.
Please note that due to a recording issue, attendances in NHS Fife between November 2020 and October 2022 will be an undercount, we are working with colleagues within NHS Fife to get this issue resolved.
The ED at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital opened on 2 May 2015 at 8:00am.
As of 8:00am on 2 May 2015, all A&E services at the Southern General Hospital transferred to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, and the Southern General Hospital closed.
As of 8:00am on 16 May 2015, the ED at Victoria Infirmary closed and the service transferred to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. The Victoria Infirmary MIU was not affected.
As of 8:00am on 30 May 2015, the ED service at Western Infirmary closed and the service transferred to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. The new West Glasgow MIU service began on the Western Infirmary site.
As of 08:00 hrs on 10 June 2015, the A&E services at the Royal Hospital for Children (Glasgow) moved location from the Yorkhill campus to The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus.
Some sites in NHS Highland which supply aggregate data have on occasion not split return attendances into unplanned and planned return attendances, so that only new attendances have been included. This issue will affect NHS Highland's total attendance figure by around 1-4% per month and has a negligible effect on Scotland's total attendances.
Due to staffing levels, Crieff Community Hospital has run a reduced service since June 2015. The A&E service at Aberfeldy Cottage Hospital closed in December 2015.
If NHS Boards discover that data submitted for publication is incorrect, or that data is missing, further re-submissions can be made up until the publication submission deadline date. Any revised figures will then be reflected within the current publication. Figures contained within each publication may also be subject to change in future releases as submissions may be updated to reflect a more accurate and complete set of data.
Quarterly
The methodology and baseline period were updated in August 2019, and are not comparable to previous releases.
For more information please see
http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Quality-Indicators/HSMR/FAQ/
All previous releases using the old methodology remain available on the ISD website here:
http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Quality-Indicators/Publications/
Most deaths that occur in hospital are inevitable because of the patient’s condition on admission. Some deaths can be prevented, however, by improving care and treatment or by avoiding harm.
Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios (HSMR) adjust mortality data to take account of some of the factors known to affect the underlying risk of death. They include all acute inpatient and day-case patients admitted to all medical and surgical specialties (excluding obstetrics and psychiatry).
The HSMR calculation includes patients who died within 30 days from hospital admission. This means that the HSMR includes deaths that occurred in the community (deaths that did not happen in a hospital) as well as those occurring in-hospital.
Information Services Division has produced quarterly Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios for all Scottish hospitals participating in the Scottish Patient Safety Programme since December 2009. The HSMR methodology used up until May 2019 was agreed in 2015/16. The purpose of the HSMR at that time was to measure change in mortality over time, and to enable acute hospitals to monitor their progress towards the Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) aim of reducing hospital mortality by a further 10% by December 2018. The end of this phase of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme provide the the opportunity to review the model methodology and subsequently update and refine it, ensuring that the methodology continues to be robust and that comparisons which are made against the national average continue to be appropriate and relevant for each point in time.
Information for January 2019 onwards is available from the HSMR pages on the ISD Scotland website:
https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Quality-Indicators/HSMR/
The latest information shown in NHS Performs for Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios (up to December 2018) is for twenty nine acute hospitals participating in the Scottish Patient Safety Programme and for Scotland overall. The statistics for October – December 2018 reflect the completeness levels of validated SMR01 returns from NHS Boards to ISD as at 11 April 2019. The analysis is based on data that is approximately 98% complete at a national level..
All NHS Board HSMRs are based on reported completeness levels above 95% with the exception of Forth Valley (90%). HSMRs should therefore be considered provisional on the basis that the source data are dynamic and additional hospital returns will come in and be reflected in future calculations of the HSMR for this quarter. ISD continues to work with NHS Boards to assist in the resolution of any data submission issues. Please refer to the SMR Completeness web page on the ISD Website for more information.
http://www.isdscotland.org/products-and-Services/Data-Support-and-Monitoring/SMR-Completeness/
The HSMR value for Scotland for the new baseline period (January 2011 to December 2013) is 1. This allows quarterly hospital values to be compared to the baseline period for Scotland.
- If an HSMR value is less than 1: This means the number of deaths within 30 days of admission for a hospital is fewer than predicted.
- If an HSMR value is greater than 1: This means the number of deaths within 30 days for a hospital is more than predicted.
However, if the number of deaths is more than predicted this does not necessarily mean that these were avoidable deaths (i.e. that they should not have happened), or that they were unexpected, or attributable to failings in the quality of care.
HSMRs are calculated for all acute hospitals participating in the SPSP only. Therefore the sum of individual hospitals will not equal the Scottish figure which includes all patients admitted to acute Scottish hospitals during the reporting period. Similarly SPSP hospitals within each NHS Board will not sum to NHS Board totals as these include all acute hospitals within the NHS Board area.
Golden Jubilee National Hospital provides specialist services with a case-mix of patients that differs substantially from the majority of other hospitals in Scotland. Although the model adjusts for case-mix, there could be characteristics inherent in the patient population that are not typical of other Scottish hospitals. For instance there was a shift to heart and lung surgery at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital in 2008.
In order to reflect current service configuration, some hospitals are presented as combined institutions for the purposes of these reports. This applies to the following NHS Boards.
- NHS Fife: In order to reflect current service configuration, the HSMRs for Queen Margaret Hospital and Victoria Hospital have been combined. This change has been applied to all time points retrospectively back to the initial reporting period. Gynaecology activity from the former Forth Park Hospital has also been retrospectively incorporated within this new NHS Fife combined HSMR; obstetric activity is not included in the definition of the Scottish HSMR.
- NHS Forth Valley: In order to reflect current service configuration, the HSMRs for the former Falkirk & District Royal Infirmary, Stirling Royal Infirmary and the new Forth Valley Royal Hospital are combined. This change has been applied to all time points retrospectively back to the initial reporting period.
- NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde: In order to reflect current service configuration, the HSMRs for Stobhill Hospital and Glasgow Royal Infirmary have been combined as have the activity for Royal Alexandra Hospital and Vale of Leven. Additionally the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital opened to patients in April 2015, since then services from the Southern General, Victoria Infirmary and Western Infirmary/ Gartnavel have transferred to this new hospital. These changes have been applied to all time points retrospectively back to the initial reporting period. In addition NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde combine any activity (historic or current) from Blawarthill Hospital, Drumchapel Hospital, Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital, Knightswood Hospital, and Beatson Oncology Centre with Queen Elizabeth University Hospital data.
Individual hospital level data for these combined sites are available on request.
Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio (HSMR) Methodology
ISD Scotland Quality Indicators Publications
Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios (HSMR)
Quarterly
A Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a type of bacterial infection that can affect the digestive system. It most commonly affects people who have been treated with antibiotics.
Incidence rates of CDI are presented by NHS Board. Each case is allocated to an NHS Board based on the location of the diagnostic laboratory where the specimen was tested. The surveillance does not distinguish between cases from acute, non–acute hospitals, and the community (all cases are included). It is currently assumed that all cases have been in contact with the healthcare system and therefore can be classified healthcare associated cases.
The rate of CDI per NHS Board area for patients aged 15 and over was calculated as follows:
Rate per 100,000 total occupied bed days = (number of CDI cases * 100000)/total occupied bed days in Board area for patients aged 15 and over
For patients aged 15-64, total occupied bed days includes patients in acute hospitals only. For patients aged 65 and over, total occupied bed days includes patients in acute hospitals and patients in non-acute geriatric long-term stay wards except for psychiatry and obstetrics.
Full details of the methods and caveats for the quarterly report for the surveillance of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in Scotland have been documented:
Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a gram positive bacterium which colonises the nasal cavity of about 30% of the healthy population. Although this colonisation is usually harmless, S. aureus may cause serious infections. These infections are commonly associated with healthcare interventions, often because of failures to implement infection prevention methods. As a result, both meticillin-sensitive and meticillin-resistant S. aureus (MSSA and MRSA) remain endemic in many UK hospitals, causing a range of infections. Amongst the most serious of these are bacteraemias.
The rate of S. aureus bacteraemia was calculated per NHS Board area as follows:
Rate per 100,000 total occupied bed days = (number of S. aureus or MRSA or MSSA cases * 100000)/acute occupied bed days in Board area
The denominator is the number of acute occupied bed days (AOBDs) for Scotland or each NHS Board for the relevant quarter. These S. aureus bacteraemia rates are calculated for each NHS Board, enabling comparisons between boards.
Full details of the methods and caveats for the quarterly report for the surveillance of Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) in Scotland have been documented:
Quarterly reports on Clostridium difficile and S. aureus bacteraemia infection rates are published by Health Protection Scotland. These reports are available online at:
Quarterly reports on Clostridium difficile infection and S. aureus bacteraemia
Further information on Clostridium difficile and S. aureus bacteraemia reporting in Scotland:
No longer updated on NHS Performs (was updated weekly until 2 October 2017).
Norovirus is a virus that is a common cause of infectious gastroenteritis (diarrhoea and vomiting). Norovirus is sometime known as ‘winter vomiting disease’ as it is most common during the winter months but infections can occur at any time of year.
Up until 2 October 2017, Health Protection Scotland published a weekly point prevalence report providing the latest data on the number of positive samples of Norovirus from NHS Scotland laboratories as well as the data on the number of wards closed in NHS Scotland due to confirmed or presumed Norovirus.
From 3 October 2017, HPS implemented a new Norovirus reporting system recording all ward/bay closures due to Norovirus outbreaks in Scotland, replacing the previous point prevalence reporting. NHS Boards now report all ward and bay closures due to Norovirus including number of patients/staff affected and length of outbreak into HPS on a weekly basis.
Due to the implementation of this new approach to Norovirus reporting, this indicator will no longer be updated in NHS Performs.
For further information on the new reporting system and the latest Norovirus information, please visit the HPS website.
It should be noted that the data are un-validated management information and not official statistics.
Monthly reports of delayed discharge information including figures on the number of delayed discharge patients at the monthly census date and the total number of bed days occupied by delayed discharges are available online at:
Delayed discharge monthly publication
A delayed discharge is a hospital patient who is clinically ready for discharge from inpatient hospital care but continues to occupy a hospital bed beyond the ready for discharge date. Timely discharge from hospital is an important indicator of quality and is a marker for person centred, effective, integrated and harm free care.
The figures presented in NHS Performs are at Scotland level and by Health Board of Treatment. Information is not presented by hospital as there would be a risk of identifying patients in smaller hospitals. A more appropriate level for presenting delayed discharge information would be local authority of residence currently available through the above publication link.
Revised data definitions and national data requirements came into effect on 1 July 2016 and ensure improved data quality and alignment of census information and associated bed days. Information published previously (up to June 2016) cannot be used in direct comparison to data published from July 2016 onwards. In order to allow census trend information revised definitions have been applied to previous census data for all delays from October 2015 to June 2016. Further information is provided in data tables available through the above publication link.
From the May 2022 publication, the census figures for April 2021 onwards include delays due to infection control measures in place at hospital or care home (delay reason codes 26X and 46X).
Data are gathered by ISD from NHS Boards and are as defined in the Delayed Discharge Data Definitions Manual and National Data Requirements:
Delayed Discharges Data Definitions and National Data Requirements
Monthly reports of delayed discharge information including figures on the number of delayed discharge patients at the monthly census date and the total number of bed days occupied by delayed discharges are available online at:
Delayed Discharge monthly publication
Monthly
The waiting time for a planned operation is important to patients. If the NHS is cancelling operations this is a measure of how the NHS is responding to demands for services. Measuring and regular reporting of cancelled operations highlights where there are delays in the system and enables monitoring of the effectiveness of NHS performance throughout the country.
ISD Scotland reports key statistics on the number of planned operations, the number cancelled and the reason for cancellations at Hospitals across Scotland. Data are provided from NHS Boards Theatre Systems and will include patients who are cancelled the day before, or on the day of their elective operation. This includes urgent operations and patients who may have their elective (planned) operation cancelled more than once during their stay. The data was first published on 30 June 2015.
Operations cancelled for non-clinical reasons includes:
Data are submitted from the NHS Boards information systems used to plan and book operations. The following data quality issues should be noted. ISD continues to work with Boards to resolve any technical issues:
Monthly reports on cancelled planned operations are available online at:
Quarterly
Quarterly reports on Inpatient, Day case and Outpatient Stage of Treatment Waiting Times are available online at:
Inpatient, Day Case & Outpatient stage of treatment waiting times
The Scottish Government have set national waiting times standards for the maximum time that patients should have to wait for NHS services in Scotland. From the 31 March 2010, no patient should wait longer than 12 weeks for a new outpatient appointment at a consultant-led clinic. This includes referrals from all sources. The specialties of mental health, obstetrics and homeopathy are excluded.
The information shown in NHS Performs relates to the number of patients seen and therefore shows the complete picture of waiting time experienced. Information is not currently presented at hospital level as NHS Boards often provide a centralised service. However, we will consider how this information can be presented at a more detailed level.
Waiting times are adjusted to deduct periods where the patient is unavailable (e.g. for medical or patient advised reasons). Patients who cancel or don't attend an appointment have their waiting times clock reset to zero when it is reasonable and clinically appropriate to do so.
Some Boards report small differences between national and local reporting due to central validation and local system issues.
Following a transitional phase to accommodate system changes in line with Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) legislation, all data from 1 October 2012 is now sourced centrally to ensure consistency across Scotland. All New Outpatient figures have been refreshed accordingly.
There have been a number of changes in waiting times and waiting list recording over the last 20 years. Information is available in the Waiting Times & Waiting List History document.
Further background information and additional details regarding data quality can be found in the latest Publication Report.
Quarterly reports on Inpatient, Day case and Outpatient Stage of Treatment Waiting Times are available online at:
Inpatient, Day Case & Outpatient stage of treatment waiting times
Inpatient Day Cases and Outpatients
Quarterly
Quarterly reports on Inpatient, Day case and Outpatient Stage of Treatment Waiting Times are available online at:
Inpatient, Day Case & Outpatient stage of treatment waiting times
The Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) states that from 1 October 2012, no patient covered by the guarantee should wait longer than 12 weeks (84 days) for planned Inpatient or Day case admission.
The information shown in NHS Performs relates to the number of patients seen and therefore shows the complete picture of waiting time experienced. Information is not currently presented at hospital level as NHS Boards often provide a centralised service. However, we will consider how this information can be presented at a more detailed level.
Waiting times are adjusted to deduct periods where the patient is unavailable (e.g. for medical or patient advised reasons). Patients who cancel or don't attend an appointment have their waiting times clock reset to zero when it is reasonable and clinically appropriate to do so.
Prior to 1 October 2012, the specialties of Mental Health, Obstetrics and Homeopathy were excluded from the Inpatient and Day case waiting time standards. Homeopathy and Mental Health inpatients and day cases are now included under TTG and NHS Boards are working on providing this information, which is currently collected on different IT systems that are not yet able to supply waiting times information centrally. All NHS Boards have given the Scottish Government assurances that mental health patients are being treated within the TTG.
Some Boards report small differences between national and local reporting due to central validation and local system issues.
Following a transitional phase to accommodate system changes in line with Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) legislation, all data from 1 October 2012 is now sourced centrally to ensure consistency across Scotland. All Inpatient and Day Case figures have been revised accordingly.
There have been a number of changes in waiting times and waiting list recording over the last 20 years. Information is available in the Waiting Times & Waiting List History document.
Further background information and additional details regarding data quality can be found in the latest Publication Report.
Quarterly reports on Inpatient, Day case and Outpatient Stage of Treatment Waiting Times are available online at:
Inpatient, Day Case & Outpatient stage of treatment waiting times
Inpatient Day Cases and Outpatients
Quarterly
Quarterly reports relating to the 18 Weeks Referral To Treatment (RTT) waiting times standard are available online at:
18 weeks Referral To Treatment waiting times
Better Health Better Care which was published in December 2007 set out a commitment:
The 18 weeks Referral To Treatment (RTT) standard will address the whole patient care pathway, from receipt of a GP referral, up to the point at which each patient is actually admitted to hospital for treatment.
The 18 Weeks Referral to Treatment (18 Weeks RTT) target builds on previous waiting time targets, which set maximum waiting times for stages of treatment, for first outpatient consultation, diagnostic tests and for inpatient and day case treatment. 18 Weeks RTT focuses on the entire patient journey from the initial referral to the start of treatment, including for the first time treatment undertaken in an outpatient setting, and promotes a holistic approach to providing clinically effective, safe and efficient care in a timely manner.
The Scottish Government has determined that the 18 Weeks RTT standard should be delivered for at least 90% of patients. This standard allows, for example, the relatively small proportion of cases where it is not clinically appropriate for the patient to be seen and treated within 18 weeks and also to take account of any exceptional increase in demand for secondary care services.
For this release it should be noted that all Boards have encountered significant pressure on local information and intelligence resources due to the additional demands arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, data submitted since the onset of the pandemic may not have been subjected to the usual levels of quality assurance.
NHS Grampian were unable to provide RTT data from March 2020 to June 2022, and resumed submissions from July 2022 onwards.
Quarterly reports relating to the 18 Weeks Referral To Treatment (RTT) waiting times standard are available online at:
18 weeks Referral To Treatment waiting times
18 Weeks Referral To Treatment
Quarterly
There are two current cancer waiting times standards. Both of these standards are for 95% compliance (i.e. they have a 5% tolerance level), as for some patients it may not be clinically appropriate for treatment to begin within the time associated with each standard:
Information for the 62-day standard is presented by NHS Board area of receipt of referral and information for the 31-day standard is presented by NHS Board of area of first treatment.
The cancer waiting times standards are applicable to adults (over 16 years of age at date of diagnosis), NHSScotland patients with a newly diagnosed primary cancer and for the following cancer types:
Waiting times adjustments are applied to take into account periods of patient unavailability and medical suspensions.
Patients who had a clinically complex pathway, died before treatment or refused treatment are excluded.
Information is not currently presented at hospital level as NHS Boards often provide a centralised service. However, we will consider how this information can be presented at a more detailed level.
Some data may not yet be finalised by NHS Boards and may be subject to change in future updates. However, the data is considered to give a reasonable reflection of the current position.
For the quarterly Cancer Waiting Times publication, ISD ask NHS Boards to provide reasons for changes in figures, reasons for increases / decreases in performance. This information is detailed in the Data Quality section of the publication report
Quarterly reports relating to the 31 and 62 day cancer waiting times standards (95%) and the four indicators listed above, on average (median) and 90th percentile waits, are available online at:
Quarterly
Quarterly reports relating to Diagnostics Waiting Times are available online at:
Better Health Better Care published in December 2007, set out a commitment:
The 18 week Referral to Treatment (RTT) standard will address the whole patient care pathway, from receipt of a GP referral, up to the point at which each patient is actually admitted to hospital for treatment.
Diagnostic waiting times are an important component in the delivery of the 18 Weeks RTT commitment as the test or procedure is used to identify a person's condition, disease or injury to enable a medical diagnosis to be made.
Waiting Time information on the following eight key diagnostic tests and investigations has been collected nationally since 2006.
Endoscopy
Radiology
The Scottish Government introduced a six week maximum waiting time for eight key diagnostic tests and investigations from 31st March 2009.
Information is not currently presented at hospital level as NHS Boards often provide a centralised service. However, we will consider how this information can be presented at a more detailed level.
NHS Boards submit aggregate data on Diagnostic Waiting Times where the data for the previous quarter is confirmed by the submitting Board. Although aggregated data cannot be systematically validated, quality assurance checks on the data submitted are undertaken. Reported data are compared to previous figures and to expected trends. Derivation of the figures and data accuracy is a matter for individual NHS Boards.
Quarterly reports relating to Diagnostics Waiting Times are available online at:
Quarterly
Workforce information is collected and used to support local, regional and national workforce planning.
The figures refer to the number of staff in post on the census date, the latest available data is updated on a quarterly basis.
The whole time equivalent (WTE) figure adjusts staff numbers to take account of part time staff.
Staff working as and when required are excluded e.g. bank and agency staff. Only staff employed by NHSScotland are included i.e. outsourced domestic staff, or locum consultants are not included. Service managers working across NHS and local authority will be included if they are paid by the NHS Board.
From June 2014 a number of Boards have migrated to the new national HR system, e:ESS. This affects medical grade and medical speciality, and changed may be seen as Boards review their data during the migration process.
NHS Highland and Highland Council are currently developing an integrated model for health and social care. Staff involved in the delivery of core integrated services started to transfer from Highland Council to NHS Highland in June 2012. Staff who have already transferred into NHS Highland but have not yet been assimilated to AfC are currently recorded as unallocated / not known.
As at December 2018, of those unallocated staff transferred into NHS Highland: 55 wte (64 hc) are in administrative services; 478.3 wte (631 hc) in personal and social care and 9.7 wte (10 hc) in support services.
Please note that this month the NHS Highland Unallocated Staff figure in the published national statistics includes an additional 0.53 WTE due to a local administrative error.
Regular reports on NHS Scotland Workforce information are available online at:
NHS Scotland Workforce information
Quarterly
COVID-19 - Please note that this release includes Scotland going into emergency measures due to COVID-19. During this pandemic, NHS boards, hospitals and healthcare providers have been required to change their normal way of working to manage their COVID-19 response. As such, this is directly impacting on the volume of hospital activity and trends observed over the past couple of years. For example, inpatient and day case activity reduced by 17% when comparing October–December 2021 to the same quarter of 2019 (pre-pandemic). However, activity levels have generally been recovering from July 2020 onwards, and inpatient and day case activity has increased by over 5% when comparing October–December 2021 to the same quarter last year.
Many trends observed will be influenced by, and attributable to, the data completeness levels, small numbers, and the impact of COVID-19 highlighted above. Therefore, caution should be taken when comparing quarterly information.
From April 2020 to June 2021, there was a marked increase in the use of the XSU (‘Unspecified’) specialty across many of the NHS boards. This was most likely due to their COVID-19 response and not allocating beds to specific specialties. From July 2021 onwards, these beds have been returning to similar pre-pandemic levels.
ISD(S)1 Outpatient and Beds NHS Board coding - Records have been identified with potentially duplicate information coming from more than one NHS Board for the same location. The numbers concerned are very low and the impact is not significant. Additionally, there are issues with the allocation of NHS hospitals to NHS Boards and private hospital activity to the ‘non-NHS Provider code’. Data Management have investigated and found that in many of these cases, this can be attributed to visiting consultant activity and NHS Boards sending their patients to private locations.
Annual and quarterly reports on Hospital Beds information are available online at:
Every 2 years (from 2012 onwards), every 1 year before 2012
The Inpatient Experience Survey is a postal survey with the aim of establishing the experience of a sample of adults who had a recent overnight hospital stay. The survey covers six specific areas of inpatient experience: admission to hospital; the hospital and ward; care and treatment; hospital staff; arrangements for leaving hospital; and care and support services after leaving hospital. The survey aims to help us understand more about the quality of services, and what needs to be improved.
The survey was first run in 2010 and is currently run every two years. For further details on each survey, including copies of the questionnaire and all publications, please select the relevant link:
The survey and sampling approach for this survey has been developed by the Scottish Government in consultation with a range of stakeholders including NHS Boards and NHS Services Scotland.
The table below shows which answers were classed as positive and which were classed as negative in the inpatient survey, with only the questions included in NHS Performs being included.
NHS Performs only includes the positive percentage results.
| Question Number | Original Question Text | Positive % | Neither positive nor negative % | Negative % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Overall, how would you rate the hospital and ward environment? | Excellent Good |
Fair | Poor Very Poor |
| 34 | Overall, how would you rate your care and treatment during your stay in hospital? | Excellent Good |
Fair | Poor Very Poor |
NHS Performs only includes the positive percentage results.
NHS Performs