How the UK Hospitals Guide is built: where every figure comes from, what it measures, how we group volumes and what we do not do.
Principles
- We publish figures exactly as the source publishes them. The only thing we add is the volume band.
- We do not use words that rank hospitals against each other. Tables are in alphabetical order by default and can be re-sorted by volume band or waiting time, never by outcome.
- We only say a result is higher or lower than expected when the source says so, in its own words: NJR outlier status, NELA funnel limits, SSNAP levels A to E, and CQC survey bands. Where an audit publishes a rate without limits, we show the rate next to the national figure and write “No banding published”.
- Figures the source suppresses because of small numbers are shown as “Not published (small numbers)”. We do not estimate them.
- Every figure carries its period. Audit outcomes describe operations done one to three years ago; waiting times are for the latest month.
- Trust-level figures are never presented as figures for a single hospital.
Volume bands
For each operation we take every hospital or trust in the national table (not just London), and set three cut points at the lower quartile, the median and the upper quartile of their volumes, rounded to a round number. A hospital in the highest band does more of that operation than about three quarters of hospitals in the country. The bands for each page are listed below. They are recalculated when a new edition of the data is published.
Volume matters for some complex operations, where hospitals that do more tend to have better results, but it is not a measure of quality on its own.
What the measures mean
- Risk-adjusted rate: the audit allows for differences in the patients each hospital treats (for example age, other illnesses and how urgent the operation was), so that hospitals can be compared more fairly.
- Outlier (NJR): the hospital's result is outside the 99.8% control limits for its size. The NJR treats this as a signal for further investigation, not proof of poor care.
- Funnel limits (NELA): the range of death rates that would be expected by chance for a hospital treating that many patients. We show the 95% limits as NELA publishes them, and whether the hospital was in NELA's formal outlier table.
- SSNAP level: stroke teams are scored on how well they meet national standards across areas of care, and placed in levels A (highest) to E.
- Referral to treatment (RTT) wait: for people still waiting at the end of the month for planned, consultant-led treatment, the median time since referral, and the share waiting under 18 weeks (the NHS standard). For the whole trust and specialty, not the specific operation.
- Cancer 62-day wait: the share of people who started their first cancer treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral, screening or consultant upgrade (standard 85%). We add up the latest three months because monthly numbers at one trust are small, and we show “Too few patients to compare” below 20. Recent months are provisional. Specialist centres that receive patients referred on from other trusts often have lower figures, because time spent at the first trust counts too.
- Diagnostic wait (DM01): the share of people waiting for a scan or test who had waited 6 weeks or more, at the end of the month.
- CQC survey band: the Care Quality Commission compares each trust's score with what would be expected, allowing for patient mix and survey sampling, and places it in a band from “much worse than expected” to “much better than expected”.
- Hospital Episode Statistics (HES): NHS England publishes, for each NHS trust and independent provider, the number of NHS-funded hospital episodes by the chapter of the procedure classification (OPCS-4), such as “eye” or “soft tissue”, not by individual operation. Where a page has no hospital-level audit data, the “trust activity” column shows, as context, a band for the trust's 2025-26 NHS-funded activity in the related chapter, which includes other procedures as well. See “What HES can and cannot tell you” below. National figures for the specific operation codes (for example T20 for inguinal hernia repair) are shown under the table. We use the 2025-26 edition only.
- Infections: C. difficile and MRSA bloodstream infections that started in hospital, for the whole trust in the latest financial year (UK Health Security Agency). These are not adjusted for the patients a trust treats: specialist cancer and transplant centres usually have higher rates. Fewer than 10 cases are shown as a count only.
What HES can and cannot tell you
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record every admission paid for by the NHS in England. NHS England publishes, for each NHS trust, how many episodes had a main procedure in each chapter of the OPCS-4 procedure classification, such as “eye” or “soft tissue”. We use the 2025-26 edition (published 24 September 2026, Copyright © 2026 NHS England, Open Government Licence v3.0).
What it can tell you: roughly how much NHS-funded surgical activity a trust does in that area of the body, compared with other trusts in England, and, for England as a whole, how many of a specific operation were done, how many were day cases and how long people waited from the decision to admit them.
What it cannot tell you: how many of a particular operation a trust or hospital did. A chapter covers many different procedures, including tests and minor procedures. The figures are for the whole trust, not one hospital. They count only NHS-funded care, so private patients are not included, and we do not show HES figures for private hospitals. HES says nothing about results. NHS England rounds provider figures; we show bands only, never exact counts, and we never rank trusts by HES activity. Where a national audit publishes procedure-specific volumes (for example the National Joint Registry), we use the audit instead.
Checks we made: in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 editions, 17 trusts including Guy's and St Thomas' (RJ1-X) were published under a flagged code; we use 2025-26 only, where no code is flagged, and show no year-on-year HES trends. In 2025-26 the national number of cataract operations fell from 677,116 to 573,088; most of the fall is at independent-sector eye providers (18%) rather than NHS trusts (2%), so we treat the national cataract figure as possibly incomplete and say so on the cataract page.
What is not included, and why
- Private hospital results from PHIN: the Private Healthcare Information Network does not allow its data to be republished without a licence.
- Heart surgery and angioplasty results (NICOR): published in interactive reports without an open licence.
- Per-surgeon figures: we do not publish data about individual consultants.
- Friends and Family Test league tables: NHS England advises that these results should not be used to compare organisations.
- Hospital-level counts for each specific operation: not published as open data for most routine operations. Where they are not available we say so rather than estimate them.
Procedures, measures and volume bands
| Procedure | Unit | Volume measure and bands | Key outcome | Waits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hip replacement | Hospital | Joint replacements, all joints, 2025 (NJR)Bands: Fewer than 400 / 400 to 749 / 750 to 999 / 1,000 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 398 hospitals that reported to the NJR in 2025 in the published table, rounded. | NJR outlier status | RTT: Trauma and orthopaedics |
| Knee replacement | Hospital | Joint replacements, all joints, 2025 (NJR)Bands: Fewer than 400 / 400 to 749 / 750 to 999 / 1,000 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 398 hospitals that reported to the NJR in 2025 in the published table, rounded. | NJR outlier status | RTT: Trauma and orthopaedics |
| Hip fracture surgery | Hospital | People treated for a hip fracture, 2025 (NHFD)Bands: Fewer than 300 / 300 to 399 / 400 to 499 / 500 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 160 hospitals in the NHFD 2026 report in the published table, rounded. | Deaths within 30 days (adjusted) | Not applicable |
| Emergency bowel surgery (emergency laparotomy) | Hospital | Emergency laparotomies, NELA year 11Bands: Fewer than 75 / 75 to 99 / 100 to 149 / 150 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 172 hospitals in the NELA year 11 table in the published table, rounded. | 30-day deaths (risk-adjusted) and NELA funnel limits | Not applicable |
| Stroke care | Team | Stroke patients, January to March 2026 (SSNAP)Bands: Fewer than 75 / 75 to 149 / 150 to 249 / 250 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 172 stroke teams in the SSNAP January to March 2026 results in the published table, rounded. | SSNAP level (A to E) | Not applicable |
| Bowel cancer surgery | Trust | Major bowel cancer operations, 2024 (NBOCA)Bands: Fewer than 100 / 100 to 149 / 150 to 199 / 200 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 130 NHS trusts and health boards in the NBOCA data tables in the published table, rounded. | Deaths within 90 days (adjusted) | Cancer 62-day: Lower Gastrointestinal; DM01: colonoscopy |
| Prostate cancer surgery (radical prostatectomy) | Trust | Men having a radical prostatectomy (NPCA)Bands: Fewer than 100 / 100 to 149 / 150 to 249 / 250 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 51 surgical centres in the NPCA table in the published table, rounded. | Readmission within 90 days (adjusted) | Cancer 62-day: Urological - Prostate |
| Lung cancer surgery | Trust | People having lung cancer surgery, 2024 (NLCA)Bands: Fewer than 200 / 200 to 249 / 250 to 299 / 300 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 28 trusts and health boards in the NLCA table in the published table, rounded. | Deaths within 90 days (adjusted) | Cancer 62-day: Lung; DM01: CT scan |
| Breast cancer surgery | Trust | Women having breast cancer surgery, 2021 to 2023 (NAoPri)Bands: Fewer than 600 / 600 to 999 / 1,000 to 1,499 / 1,500 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 115 NHS trusts in the NAoPri table in the published table, rounded. | Further operation after breast-conserving surgery (adjusted) | Cancer 62-day: Breast |
| Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair | Trust | Planned (elective) AAA repairs in 2024 (NVR)Bands: Fewer than 25 / 25 to 39 / 40 to 49 / 50 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 64 trusts and health boards in the NVR table in the published table, rounded. | Deaths in hospital after planned repair (adjusted) | Not applicable |
| Carotid endarterectomy | Trust | Carotid endarterectomies in 2024 (NVR)Bands: Fewer than 30 / 30 to 39 / 40 to 49 / 50 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 66 trusts and health boards in the NVR table in the published table, rounded. | Stroke or death within 30 days (adjusted) | Not applicable |
| Leg artery bypass and angioplasty (peripheral arterial disease) | Trust | Leg artery bypass operations in 2024 (NVR)Bands: Fewer than 50 / 50 to 99 / 100 to 149 / 150 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 65 trusts and health boards in the NVR table in the published table, rounded. | Deaths in hospital after bypass (adjusted) | Not applicable |
| Major leg amputation | Trust | Major leg amputations in 2024 (NVR)Bands: Fewer than 30 / 30 to 49 / 50 to 99 / 100 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 62 trusts and health boards in the NVR table in the published table, rounded. | Deaths in hospital within 30 days (adjusted) | Not applicable |
| Carpal tunnel release | Trust | Trust's overall NHS-funded activity, OPCS-4 chapter A (nervous system), 2025-26 (HES). Context onlyBands: Fewer than 750 / 750 to 1,499 / 1,500 to 2,499 / 2,500 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 142 NHS trusts in England with activity in OPCS-4 chapter A in the published table, rounded. | None at hospital level | RTT: Trauma and orthopaedics |
| Lumbar decompression (lower back surgery) | Trust | Trust's overall NHS-funded activity, OPCS-4 chapter V (bones and joints of the skull and spine), 2025-26 (HES). Context onlyBands: Fewer than 150 / 150 to 399 / 400 to 999 / 1,000 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 128 NHS trusts in England with activity in OPCS-4 chapter V in the published table, rounded. | None at hospital level | RTT: Trauma and orthopaedics; DM01: MRI scan |
| Coronary artery bypass graft (heart bypass) | Trust | Trust's overall NHS-funded activity, OPCS-4 chapter K (heart), 2025-26 (HES). Context onlyBands: Fewer than 750 / 750 to 1,499 / 1,500 to 2,999 / 3,000 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 117 NHS trusts in England with activity in OPCS-4 chapter K in the published table, rounded. | None at hospital level | DM01: echocardiogram (heart ultrasound); RTT: Cardiothoracic surgery |
| Coronary angioplasty and stents | Trust | Trust's overall NHS-funded activity, OPCS-4 chapter K (heart), 2025-26 (HES). Context onlyBands: Fewer than 750 / 750 to 1,499 / 1,500 to 2,999 / 3,000 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 117 NHS trusts in England with activity in OPCS-4 chapter K in the published table, rounded. | None at hospital level | RTT: Cardiology; DM01: echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) |
| Varicose vein treatment | Trust | Trust's overall NHS-funded activity, OPCS-4 chapter L (arteries and veins), 2025-26 (HES). Context onlyBands: Fewer than 600 / 600 to 1,499 / 1,500 to 2,999 / 3,000 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 132 NHS trusts in England with activity in OPCS-4 chapter L in the published table, rounded. | None at hospital level | DM01: ultrasound scan |
| Inguinal hernia repair | Trust | Trust's overall NHS-funded activity, OPCS-4 chapter T (soft tissue (including hernias)), 2025-26 (HES). Context onlyBands: Fewer than 1,500 / 1,500 to 2,499 / 2,500 to 2,999 / 3,000 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 136 NHS trusts in England with activity in OPCS-4 chapter T in the published table, rounded. | None at hospital level | RTT: General surgery |
| Gallbladder removal | Trust | Trust's overall NHS-funded activity, OPCS-4 chapter J (other abdominal organs (mainly digestive)), 2025-26 (HES). Context onlyBands: Fewer than 750 / 750 to 999 / 1,000 to 1,999 / 2,000 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 125 NHS trusts in England with activity in OPCS-4 chapter J in the published table, rounded. | None at hospital level | RTT: General surgery; DM01: ultrasound scan |
| Haemorrhoid (piles) surgery | Trust | None published | None at hospital level | RTT: General surgery; DM01: colonoscopy |
| Weight loss surgery | Trust | None published | None at hospital level | RTT: General surgery; DM01: gastroscopy |
| Cataract surgery | Trust | Trust's overall NHS-funded activity, OPCS-4 chapter C (eye), 2025-26 (HES). Context onlyBands: Fewer than 1,500 / 1,500 to 2,999 / 3,000 to 7,499 / 7,500 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 122 NHS trusts in England with activity in OPCS-4 chapter C in the published table, rounded. | None at hospital level | RTT: Ophthalmology |
| Tonsil removal (tonsillectomy) | Trust | Trust's overall NHS-funded activity, OPCS-4 chapter F (mouth), 2025-26 (HES). Context onlyBands: Fewer than 1,000 / 1,000 to 1,499 / 1,500 to 2,999 / 3,000 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 127 NHS trusts in England with activity in OPCS-4 chapter F in the published table, rounded. | None at hospital level | RTT: Ear, nose and throat |
| Grommets for glue ear | Trust | Trust's overall NHS-funded activity, OPCS-4 chapter D (ear), 2025-26 (HES). Context onlyBands: Fewer than 300 / 300 to 499 / 500 to 749 / 750 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 122 NHS trusts in England with activity in OPCS-4 chapter D in the published table, rounded. | None at hospital level | RTT: Ear, nose and throat; DM01: hearing test (audiology) |
| Hysterectomy | Trust | Trust's overall NHS-funded activity, OPCS-4 chapter Q (female genital tract), 2025-26 (HES). Context onlyBands: Fewer than 1,500 / 1,500 to 1,999 / 2,000 to 2,999 / 3,000 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 126 NHS trusts in England with activity in OPCS-4 chapter Q in the published table, rounded. | None at hospital level | RTT: Gynaecology |
| Giving birth and caesarean section | Trust | Trust's overall NHS-funded activity, OPCS-4 chapter R (pregnancy and childbirth), 2025-26 (HES). Context onlyBands: Fewer than 3,000 / 3,000 to 3,999 / 4,000 to 4,999 / 5,000 or more. Cut points are the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of all 118 NHS trusts in England with activity in OPCS-4 chapter R in the published table, rounded. | None at hospital level | Not applicable |
| Prostate surgery for an enlarged prostate (TURP) | Trust | None published | None at hospital level | RTT: Urology; DM01: cystoscopy |
| Kidney stone treatment | Trust | None published | None at hospital level | RTT: Urology |
Data checks before publishing
- King Edward VII's Hospital: NJR outlier flags. In the NJR open file the hospital is flagged on 8 of 9 outlier measures in 2025 (8 of 9 in 2024, 7 of 12 in 2023). No other UK hospital is flagged on more than 4 in 2025, and it is the only hospital flagged for patellofemoral knee revision. The rows parse correctly (19 columns, flags in the right place). What we did: Shown as published with an explanatory note.
- Guy's and St Thomas' (RJ1-X) in HES 2023-24 and 2024-25. HES provider tables for 2023-24 and 2024-25 publish 17 trusts with an '-X' suffix, including RJ1-X for Guy's and St Thomas'. The suffix is gone in 2025-26. What we did: The guide only uses 2025-26 HES figures, so no '-X' figure is shown. Year-on-year HES trends are not shown for any trust..
- Fall in cataract operations in HES 2025-26. National C75 episodes fell from 677,116 (2024-25) to 573,088 (2025-26). Eye operations (chapter C) at independent-sector providers fell 18% (452,855 to 370,130) while NHS trusts fell 2% (564,620 to 551,555). London fell 4%. Outpatient HES 2025-26 shows almost no cataract operations, so the activity has not moved to outpatient records. What we did: The national cataract figure is shown with a warning that 2025-26 independent-sector recording looks incomplete. London trust figures (stable) are shown..
- NELA: hospitals with low case ascertainment or suppressed counts. King's College Hospital (2% case ascertainment, fewer than 10 cases), Hammersmith and King George (fewer than 10 cases) publish mortality figures based on very few patients. What we did: Shown as 'Not published (small numbers)'; low case ascertainment (below 70%) is noted on the row..
All sources and licences
- National Joint Registry (NJR) transparency data, National Joint Registry / HQIP. Source: National Joint Registry (NJR) transparency data, via data.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
- National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD) annual report 2026 data, Royal College of Physicians (FFFAP) for HQIP. Source: National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD) annual report 2026, Royal College of Physicians / HQIP, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
- National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA) Year 11 hospital table and outlier table, NELA (Royal College of Anaesthetists) for HQIP. Source: National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA) Year 11 report, RCoA / HQIP, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
- National Bowel Cancer Audit (NBOCA) State of the Nation 2026 data tables, NATCAN (Royal College of Surgeons of England) for HQIP. Source: National Bowel Cancer Audit (NBOCA), NATCAN / HQIP, State of the Nation 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
- National Prostate Cancer Audit (NPCA) State of the Nation 2026 data tables, NATCAN for HQIP. Source: National Prostate Cancer Audit (NPCA), NATCAN / HQIP, 2026, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
- National Lung Cancer Audit (NLCA) State of the Nation 2026 data tables, NATCAN for HQIP. Source: National Lung Cancer Audit (NLCA), NATCAN / HQIP, 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
- National Audit of Primary Breast Cancer (NAoPri) State of the Nation 2026 data tables, NATCAN for HQIP. Source: National Audit of Primary Breast Cancer (NAoPri), NATCAN / HQIP, 2026, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
- National Vascular Registry (NVR) 2025 State of the Nation report appendices, VSQIP (Royal College of Surgeons of England) for HQIP. Source: National Vascular Registry 2025 State of the Nation report appendices. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
- Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) Full Results Portfolio, January to March 2026, SSNAP (King's College London) for HQIP. Source: Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
- Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity 2025-26 (Hospital Episode Statistics), NHS England. Source: Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity 2025-26, NHS England, part of the Government Statistical Service (published 24 September 2026). Copyright © 2026, NHS England. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. NHS-funded activity only. Open Government Licence v3.0
- Consultant-led Referral to Treatment Waiting Times, NHS England. Source: NHS England, Referral to Treatment waiting times. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
- Cancer Waiting Times (provider extract), NHS England. Source: NHS England, Cancer Waiting Times. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
- Diagnostic Waiting Times and Activity (DM01), NHS England. Source: NHS England, Diagnostic Waiting Times and Activity (DM01). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
- CQC Adult Inpatient Survey 2025 (trust benchmark results), Care Quality Commission. Source: Care Quality Commission, NHS Patient Survey Programme, Adult Inpatient Survey 2025. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025 (trust benchmark results), Care Quality Commission. Source: Care Quality Commission, NHS Patient Survey Programme, Maternity Survey 2025. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
- Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI), NHS England. Source: NHS England, SHMI. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
- Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs), NHS England. Source: NHS England, PROMs. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
- Healthcare-associated infections: annual counts and rates by trust (financial year 2025 to 2026), UK Health Security Agency. Source: UK Health Security Agency, healthcare-associated infection annual data. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
- NHS Maternity Statistics 2024-25 (Hospital Episode Statistics, provider level analysis), NHS England. Source: NHS England maternity statistics. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
- CQC ratings, Care Quality Commission. CQC ratings: Care Quality Commission. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0
Current periods: waiting times August 2026; cancer waiting times June to August 2026 (provisional); diagnostic waits August 2026; HES 2025-26; NJR 2025; NHFD 2025; NELA Year 11 (December 2023 to November 2024); SSNAP January to March 2026. Data file generated 22 October 2026.
Questions or corrections: tell us. This guide is information, not medical advice.
Sources
We checked this guide against these official pages on 22 October 2026.
- National Joint Registry transparency data (data.gov.uk) (National Joint Registry)
- National Hip Fracture Database annual report 2026 data (Royal College of Physicians)
- National Emergency Laparotomy Audit: eleventh annual report (NELA)
- National Bowel Cancer Audit State of the Nation report 2026 (NATCAN)
- National Prostate Cancer Audit State of the Nation report 2026 (NATCAN)
- National Lung Cancer Audit (NATCAN)
- National Audit of Primary Breast Cancer (NATCAN)
- National Vascular Registry 2025 State of the Nation report (VSQIP)
- Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme results (data.gov.uk) (SSNAP)
- Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity 2025-26 (NHS England)
- Consultant-led Referral to Treatment Waiting Times 2026-27 (NHS England)
- Cancer Waiting Times (NHS England)
- Adult inpatient survey (Care Quality Commission)
Spotted something out of date? Tell us.