NHS Maternity Statistics, England, 2023-24

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data in the files that accompany this report for the providers mentioned below should be used with caution.

• Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (RTP) and East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (RDE) have an unusually high ratio of birth episodes to delivery episodes in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data outputs. This is due to additional general hospital episodes submitted by these providers being converted to birth episodes in HES data processing based on the admission method, episode order and date of birth fields.
• University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (RK9) and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (RXR) have an unusually high ratio of birth episodes to delivery episodes in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data outputs. This is due to the providers submitting all data as general episodes and being converted to delivery and birth episodes only by HES data processing. It is not clear if this results in overcounting birth episodes or undercounting delivery episodes.
• Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (RH8) and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RQM) have reported that the episode counts in HES are overstated compared to true levels of activity.
• Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (RM3) and Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust (RA9) have significantly fewer HES delivery and birth episodes than in previous years.

When using data tables showing breakdowns by gestation length, please review the notes included below those tables regarding data quality issues affecting this field for a small number of trusts.

Detailed information about HES data quality of data items, and completeness of provider data submissions is available.

A data quality statement reporting against the European Statistical System (ESS) quality dimensions and principles is published with this report.

The following providers had missing MSDS submissions for 5 of the 12 reporting months in 2023-24. Therefore their overall annual figures may not be fully reflective of the full year’s activity. The Trusts are Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (RJ1) and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RJZ).

The following providers had fewer MSDS records than expected for some reporting months in 2023-24. Therefore their overall annual figures may not be fully reflective of the full year’s activity. The extent to which the annual data is affected will vary depending on the number of months and whether relevant births and deliveries were included in submissions for later months.

• 7 reporting months with fewer records - London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (R1K) .
• 2 reporting months with fewer records - University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (RK9) and Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (RWA). 
• 1 reporting month with fewer records - The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (RAS), Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust (RAL), South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (R0B) and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (RTH).

Detailed information about data quality of MSDS data items, and completeness of provider data submissions can be found in the Excel data quality files published alongside this report.

In April 2019, the MSDS transitioned to a new version of the dataset. This is the fifth publication of data from MSDS v2.0, therefore MSDS data from 2019-20 onwards are not directly comparable to earlier years.

For trusts that merged during the year, MSDS annual data reports the combined data under the successor organisation code and name following the merger. Since 2021-22, HES annual data reports the data under the organisations that were in place at the time of the activity.

Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust (RVY) was acquired by Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (RBN) in July 2023.  In this report, all 2023-24 MSDS data for both trusts is reported under the RBN organisation code. In the HES provider level data, activity for RVY for the months prior to the merger is reported separately under the RVY organisation code.

Percentages included in this publication, unless otherwise stated, are based on total ‘knowns’, e.g. the percentage of caesareans is based on all deliveries with a known method of delivery, excluding those with an unknown method of delivery. Where there is a high percentage of ‘unknowns’ for a given clinical practice or outcome (these are identifiable in all tables), the reported figures for ‘knowns’ should be treated with caution. Given the fluctuation in the number of ‘unknowns’ over time, it should be noted that all reported changes may be the result of changes/improvements in recording practice rather than changes in clinical practice or clinical outcomes.

For information on specific fields, refer to the HES data dictionary and MSDS Technical Output Specification.

In order to prevent disclosure of identities or information about service users, figures have been rounded.

For MSDS data, all figures between 1 and 7 have been rounded to 5, other figures have been rounded to the nearest 5. Percentages have been calculated from rounded figures.

For HES data, national figures are unrounded. For sub-national data, values between 1 and 7 are shown as a * in the tables and other values are rounded to the nearest 5. Percentages have been calculated from rounded figures.