Version: 1.0.0 | Published: 21 Aug 2026 | Updated: 0 days ago
Summary
Documentation
Associated Media:
Description:
The SUS (Secondary Uses Service) Unified Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS) is the national patient level dataset capturing all NHS-funded emergency care activity in London. It provides detailed clinical, demographic, and operational information about every emergency department attendance. It is richer and more clinically descriptive than the older A&E Commissioning Dataset, making it a core resource for researchers studying urgent and emergency care.
ECDS is the most clinically rich and operationally detailed dataset for understanding emergency care in England — essential for improving safety, flow, and patient outcomes.
That data set includes:
1. Patient demographics such as Age, Sex, Ethnicity, Geographical identifiers (region, trust, site).
2. Attendance details including Arrival date/time, Attendance type (Type 1-3 etc), Arrival mode (walk-in, ambulance, transfer), Triage category, Chief complaint / presenting condition, Clinical observations (where recorded).
3. Clinical information including Diagnoses (SNOMED CT rather than ICD-10), Clinical condition at arrival, Mental health indicators (including stays >24 hours), Paediatric-specific fields, Procedures/interventions performed in ED.
4. Operational and performance data such as Time stamps for key stages (arrival, triage, treatment, decision to admit/discharge), 4-hour performance (admitted and non-admitted pathways), 12-hour waits from arrival, Long-stay metrics (e.g., mental health >24 hours), Site-level performance data, Discharge destination (home, ward, other hospital).
5. Admission and outcome information including:
- Whether the patient was admitted
- Time to admission
- Discharge status
- Transfers to other services
6. Coverage includes All NHS emergency departments (Type 1 & 2), Urgent treatment centres where ECDS is implemented, NHS-funded emergency care delivered in independent sector sites.
It excludes private emergency care not funded by the NHS.
Researchers use SUS Emergency Care Data Set to:
1. Understand demand and capacity by using the figures to help model demand, staffing needs, and seasonal pressures.
2. Waiting time analysis is crucial for evaluating the Urgent & Emergency Care Recovery Plan. ECDS provides granular timestamps enabling:
- 4 hour performance analysis
- 12 hour waits from arrival
- Paediatric vs adult performance
- Mental health long stays (>24 hours)
3. Clinical acuity and case mix
Due to the fact that ECDS uses SNOMED CT, the following can be analysed:
- Researchers can analyse presenting complaints more precisely
- Identify high-acuity groups
- Study variation in triage and treatment pathways
4. Flow and bottleneck identification by using time stamps allow:
- Mapping patient flow through ED
- Identifying delays (triage, treatment, decision to admit)
- Understanding causes of long ED stays
5. Health inequalities by using demographic fields support:
- Analysis of who waits longest
- Differences in admission rates
- Variation in outcomes by ethnicity, age, or region
6. Policy evaluation by using ECDS to monitor:
- UEC Recovery Plan commitments
- Performance improvements
- Impact of operational changes (e.g., Same Day Emergency Care expansion)
7. Safety and quality improvement
Researchers can examine Mental Health crisis care in ED, Paediatric emergency performance, Complications or deterioration in ED, Variation between sites and regions.
Using ECDS, researchers can support improving patient care in the following ways:
- Reduce long ED waits by identifying bottlenecks
- Improve triage accuracy through analysis of presenting complaints
- Enhance mental health crisis pathways using long stay data
- Support paediatric emergency improvements with age specific metrics
- Target inequalities by understanding demographic variation in waits and outcomes
- Inform national strategy on emergency care redesign, staffing, and capacity.
In Pipeline:
Available
Coverage
Spatial:
- United Kingdom
- England
- London
Typical Age Range Min:
0
Typical Age Range Max:
150
Material Type:
None/not available
Follow Up:
1 - 10 Years
Pathway:
This dataset contains all Emergency Care Activity for London patients. Each
patient will be identified using an unique patient key, this can be used to link
to other London SDE 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 - Accident and Emergency
Image Contrast:
No
Temporal
Publishing Frequency:
Monthly
Distribution Release Date:
01 September 2026
Start Date:
01 April 2018
Time Lag:
1-2 weeks
Accessibility
Access
Access Rights:
London Secure Data Environment Enquiry Form
Access Service Category:
TRE/SDE
Access Service:
Researchers will have access to a secure workspace via an airlocked Azure
Virtual Desktop with a specific username and password, MFA (multi-factor
authentication) and OAUTH (open authentication). Researchers will get specific
access to a relevant subset of the datasets that are present in the SDE
catalogue for their project and will be able to carry out their research within
the safe haven. There are restrictions applied which prevent the researchers
from taking data out of the safe haven. Once the research is completed the
London SDE admin team will need to be contacted for any requests to egress
summary analysis out of the safe haven which will not breach secure data
environment disclosure control standards.
Access Request Cost:
Access costs will be determined on a project-by-project basis and will depend on
the specific data requirements, platform setup, and any additional services
needed to deliver the project successfully.
Delivery Lead Time:
1-2 months
Data Controller:
Participating London health care organisations act as Joint Data Controllers
within the London SDE. These organisations include for example GP Practices and
Acute Providers from across London.
Data Processor:
The data processor for the London Secure Data Environment (SDE) is primarily
managed by OneLondon, a partnership of London's five integrated care systems
(ICSs) and three health innovation networks. NHS North East London ICB hosts
OneLondon and operates the London Data Service (LDS) as a data processor on
behalf of those organisations, whilst Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
hosts the London Analytics Platform (LAP), with Imperial NHS Trust acting as the
data processor for data processing activities undertaken within the platform.
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
- SNOMED CT
Conforms To:
- NHS DATA DICTIONARY
- LOCAL
Language:
English
Format:
Text
Enrichment and Linkage
Investigations:
Linkable Datasets
PID
Title
URL
Each patient will be identified by an unique patient key that can be used to link to all other datasets available within London SDE Platform
Observations
Statistical Population
Population Description
Population Size
Measured Property
Observation Date
Events
37768292
Count
21 September 2026
Persons
Distinct Patient Count
9572078
Count
21 September 2026
Origin
Name:
NWL Data Catalogue