The Department of Health is holding a rapid consultation on the future
of the Hospital Episode Statistics system. Replies are needed by March
20. Details are below. As this message is to email lists, the
questionnaire is not attached, contrary to the statement in the letter.
You can get a copy of the questionnaire by emailing Fred Oliphant at the
Department of Health, to whom any queries or replies should be
addressed. His email address is below. Please do not reply to me. Alison
Macfarlane
Message from Fred Oliphant:
Skipton House - Room 430B
80 London Road, Elephant & Castle,
London SE1 6LH.
Direct line: 020 7972-5568
Fax: 020 7972-5662 GTN: 396-2556868
e-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Our Ref. HXR/004 Thursday, 09 March 2000
Invitation to complete a questionnaire
on the scope of the replacement HES system.
The Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) database is currently managed by
IBM Global Services Ltd, on behalf of Statistics Division 2 of the
Department of Health. I seek your help in determining the scope of the
replacement service as the current contract is running to its close.
This letter is attached to a questionnaire, either as a hard-copy or an
e-mailed MS Word 97 file. I can provide you with the alternative
version, if that is your preference, and you contact me by telephone or
e-mail. Please complete the questionnaire and return it to me with your
initial response by Monday 20 March to guarantee inclusion in the early
draft Scoping Study, but an opportunity exists to pick up on late
entries at Workshops in April.
The questionnaire is widely distributed among stakeholders both within
and external to the Department, both current and potential users,
including academic and commercial interests. I invite you to share the
document with any other organisation.
My team will collate the replies, assess the options for their resource
implications, and incorporate them into a Scoping Study. This document
will be quality assured at mid-April by representatives of the
stakeholders. The assured document will be submitted to the HES
Steering Board early-May to determine the scope of the replacement
service and to ratify the outline business case by early-June.
This is your opportunity to influence the new service and shape the
future of the redeveloped system. Some options may be adopted as part of
a phased implementation. The final scope, and the timetable for its
implementation, will be constrained by:
1) The need to retain the current scope as a minimum
1) The legal framework on security & confidentiality.
2) The existing data sets and their flows.
3) The availability of resources, and funding.
A description of the data items held on the HES database can be viewed
at http://tap.ccta.gov.uk/doh/hes_dd.nsf, and a copy of "HES the Book"
can be sent to you as an Acrobat .pdf file or a printed document, on
application.
Fred OLIPHANT - SD2HES
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