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The latest annual report on hospital admissions in English NHS hospitals has been published by NHS Digital today.

The Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity 2021-22 report includes data on Finished Consultant Episodes (FCEs)¹ and Finished Admission Episodes (FAEs)².

The data is broken down to cover information on:

• Causes of admissions
• Diagnoses on admission
• Procedures carried out
• Patient demographics
• Regional or organisational breakdowns
• Changes over time

The report covers admissions to NHS hospitals as well as NHS commissioned work in independent providers in England.

The main tables do not represent a count of individual people or patients as the same person could be admitted to hospital multiple times or seen by of number of different consultants. It is possible to analyse the HES data to provide an estimated count of people seen.

The report uses data from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)³, which is an invaluable tool for the NHS to understand demands on the frontline – where it is used to plan for new services and support research into new treatments and drugs.

Each record in HES includes key information including details of the patient (age, gender, geographic details), when they were treated and what they were treated for. All published figures are aggregated and anonymous.

Read the full report: Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity 2021-22

Also published today is the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) – Prevalence, Achievements and Personalised Care Adjustments Report, England 2021-22, which provides the recorded prevalence of 21 conditions⁴ including asthma, hypertension, dementia, diabetes and depression.

The annual publication also identifies how the recorded prevalence of these conditions has changed since the previous year.

The prevalence data is collected from GPs in England and can be broken down to regional and general practice level.

This dataset is made up of information voluntarily provided by 97.5% of general practices in England. It is collected through the QOF, which is primarily used to improve care for patients by rewarding practices for the quality of care they provide⁵.

Conditions are grouped into categories. These are:

• Cardiovascular⁶
• Respiratory⁷
• Lifestyle⁸
• High dependency and other long term conditions⁹
• Mental health and neurology¹⁰
• Musculoskeletal¹¹
• Fertility, obstetrics and gynaecology¹²
• Quality improvement¹³
• Vaccination and immunisation¹⁴

Prevalence of some conditions is measured as a proportion of the total number of people registered at a surgery, whereas others are age-specific.

QOF also provides information on the activity of GPs in relation to 27 indicator groups overall – this is expressed as achievement.

Achievement scores are used to calculate what payment a general practice should receive according to the services it delivered.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, income protection was applied to the majority of QOF indicators in 2020-21 and 2021-22, therefore should be viewed with caution when comparing against previous years.

Read the full report: Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) – Prevalence, Achievements and Personalised Care Adjustments Report, England, 2021-2022

Notes for Editors

1. A finished consultant episode (FCE) is a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FCEs are counted against the year in which they end. Figures do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay in hospital or in different stays in the same year.
2. A finished admission episodes (FAE) is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.
3. Hospital Episode Statistics are compiled from data sent by more than 180 NHS trusts in England and over 300 independent providers for activity commissioned by the NHS.
4. There are 72 indicators in total, spread across 27 condition groups; the report has information on the prevalence of 21 of these conditions. These 27 conditions and measures have been selected for the following reasons: where responsibility for ongoing management of the condition rests principally with the GP and the primary care team; where there is good evidence of the health benefits likely to result from improved primary care; and where the area is a priority.
5. QOF payments to general practices are calculated from the achievement scores allocated to each indicator. The QOF rewards practices for the provision of 'quality care' and helps to fund further improvements in the delivery of clinical care. This year, the value of a QOF point was £201.16. This figure is subject to adjustment to account for factors specific to each surgery e.g. population demographics. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on activity in general practice, QOF implementation was changed for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 reporting years; the majority of QOF indicators were income protected (i.e. payments were made to practices irrespective of activity recorded for indicators). Further information on the income protection measures applied to QOF can be found on the NHS England and Improvement website.
   These changes should be borne in mind when comparing the achievement and personalised care adjustment (PCA) data extracted for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 reporting years with data from previous years.
6. The cardiovascular group contains information on:
   1. Stroke and transient ischaemic attack
   2. Peripheral arterial disease
   3. Hypertension
   4. Heart failure
   5. Coronary heart disease
   6. Blood pressure
   7. Atrial fibrillation
7. The respiratory group contains information on:
   1. Asthma
   2. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
8. The lifestyle group contains information on:
   1. Obesity
   2. Smoking
9. The high dependency and other long term conditions group contains information on:
   1. Cancer
   2. Chronic kidney disease
   3. Diabetes mellitus
   4. Non-diabetic hyperglycaemia
   5. Palliative care
10. The mental health and neurology group contains information on:
    1. Dementia
    2. Depression
    3. Epilepsy
    4. Learning disabilities
    5. Mental health
11. The musculoskeletal group contains information on:
    1. Osteoporosis
    2. Rheumatoid arthritis
12. The fertility, obstetrics and gynaecology group contains information on:
    1. Cervical screening
13. The quality improvement groups contain information on:
    1. Early cancer diagnosis
    2. Care of people with learning disabilities
14. The vaccination and immunisation group contains information on:
    1. Vaccination and immunisation