Version: 1.0.0 | Published: 7 Nov 2025 | Updated: 28 days ago
Weekly SUS Outpatients Dataset
Dataset
Summary
Population Size:
618044
Publication Date:
31 March 2021
Documentation
Associated Media:
Description:
Initially this data is collected during a patient's time at hospital as part of the Commissioning Data Set (CDS). This is submitted to NHS Digital for processing and is returned to healthcare providers as the Secondary Uses Service (SUS) data set and includes information relating to payment for activity undertaken. It allows hospitals to be paid for the care they deliver.
This same data can also be processed and used for non-clinical purposes such as research and planning health services. Because these uses are not to do with direct patient care they are called 'secondary uses'. This is the SUS data set.
SUS data covers all NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England including:
1. private patients treated in NHS hospitals
2. patients resident outside of England
3. care delivered by treatment centres (including those in the independent sector) funded by the NHS
Each SUS record contains a wide range of information about an individual patient admitted to an NHS hospital including:
1. clinical information about diagnoses and operations
2. patient information such as age group gender and ethnicity
3. administrative information such as dates and methods of admission and discharge
4. geographical information such as where patients are treated and the area where they live
NHS Digital apply a strict statistical disclosure control in accordance with the NHS Digital protocol to all published SUS data. This suppresses small numbers to stop people identifying themselves and others to ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained.
Who SUS is for
SUS provides data for the purpose of healthcare analysis to the NHS government and others including:
The Secondary Users Service (SUS) database is made up of many data items relating to A&E care
delivered by NHS hospitals in England. Many of these items form part of the national Commissioning Data Set (CDS) and are generated by the patient administration systems within each hospital.
1. national bodies and regulators such as the Department of Health NHS England Public Health England NHS Improvement and the CQC
2. local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)
3. provider organisations
4. government departments
5. researchers and commercial healthcare bodies
6. National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE)
7. patients service users and carers
8. the media
Uses of the statistics
The statistics are known to be used for:
1. national policy making
2. benchmarking performance against other hospital providers or CCGs
3. academic research
4. analysing service usage and planning change
5. providing advice to ministers and answering a wide range of parliamentary questions
6. national and local press articles
7. international comparison
In Pipeline:
Not available
Coverage
Spatial:
- United Kingdom
- England
- London
- Brent
- Ealing
- Hammersmith and Fulham
- Harrow
- Hillingdon
- Hounslow
- Kensington and Chelsea
- Westminster
Typical Age Range Min:
0
Typical Age Range Max:
150
Material Type:
None/not available
Follow Up:
> 10 Years
Pathway:
This dataset contains all Outpatient appointments for NWL patients. Each patient
will be identified using an unique patient key, this can be used to link to
other Discover-NOW datasets that will help track the patient pathway.
Provenance
Origin
Purpose:
- Administrative
- Care
- Other
Dataset Type:
- Health and disease
- Treatments/Interventions
Dataset Sub-Type:
- Others
- Others
Source:
EPR
Collection Source:
Secondary care - Outpatients
Image Contrast:
Not stated
Temporal
Publishing Frequency:
Weekly
Distribution Release Date:
31 March 2021
Start Date:
31 March 2021
Time Lag:
1-2 weeks
Accessibility
Access
Access Rights:
Access Service Category:
TRE/SDE
Access Service:
Researchers will have access to a VDI environment with a specific username and
password. The researchers will get access to the datasets that is present in the
hub's catalogue and would be able to carry out their research within the safe
haven. There are restrictions applied which prevents the researchers from taking
data out of the safe haven, once the research/analysis is completed the admin
team will need to be contacted for taking the analysis off the safe haven.
Access Request Cost:
In Progress
Delivery Lead Time:
1-2 months
Data Controller:
Joint data controller model across North West London
Data Processor:
North West London Integrated Care Board (NWL ICB) North East London Integrated
Care Board (NEL ICB) North of England Commissioning Support Unit (NECS)
Jurisdiction:
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Usage
Data Use Limitation:
No restriction
Data Use Requirements:
- Collaboration required
- Institution-specific restrictions
- Project-specific restrictions
- Time limit on use
- User-specific restriction
Resource Creator:
- NHS NWL ICS
- London SDE
Format and Standards
Vocabulary Encoding Scheme:
- NHS NATIONAL CODES
- LOCAL
- OPCS4
Conforms To:
- NHS DATA DICTIONARY
- LOCAL
Language:
English
Format:
- Excel
- SQL
- Tableau
- R
Enrichment and Linkage
Investigations:
Tools:
Publication About Dataset:
Bottleet al. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (2020) 20:71 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-1082-7
Derived From
PID
Title
URL
Long Term Conditions", "Electronic Frailty Index", "Q-Admissions", "Patient Segments", "Risk Segments
Observations
Statistical Population
Population Description
Population Size
Measured Property
Observation Date
Persons
Distinct registered patients
712163
Count
20 October 2022
Persons
Distinct patients
618044
Count
29 November 2021
Origin
Name:
NWL Data Catalogue