Statistics on all NHS admissions into hospitals in England in 2019-20 have been published today by NHS Digital.

The Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity, 2019-20 report records a range of information around Finished Consultant Episodes (FCEs)1 and Finished Admission Episodes (FAEs)2.

Data is recorded from NHS hospitals in England, as well as work commissioned by the NHS to independent providers in England.

Data in the report includes information on:

Causes of admissions
Diagnoses on admission
Procedures carried out
Patient demographics
Regional or organisational breakdowns
Changes over time
These totals are not a count of individual people or patients, as the same person could be admitted on multiple occasions or seen by multiple consultants.

The report uses data from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)3, a valuable national data asset used for purposes such as health service planning.

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.

This data is useful for the NHS to understand frontline demand and forward planning and also supports research into disease and new treatments.