Hospital Episode Statistics are collected into a data warehouse maintained by the Health and Social Care Information Centre containing details of all admissions, outpatient appointments and A&E attendances at NHS hospitals in England. This enables health care providers to be paid according to levels of activity. It also provides data for a wide range of healthcare analysis.
Statistics have been collected since 1987. Before then a 10% sample was collected by Regional Health Authorities. Now the intention is to collect a detailed record for each 'episode' of admitted patient care delivered in England, either by NHS hospitals or delivered in the independent sector but commissioned by the NHS. There are details of around 16 million episodes of patient care per year. The basic counting unit for calculation in admitted care data is the finished consultant episode. This is the total time a patient spends under the care of an individual consultant. During the course of a hospital admission a patient may have more than one such episode.