HES provides data for the purpose of healthcare analysis to the NHS, government and others including:
- national bodies and regulators, such as the Department of Health, NHS England, Public Health England, NHS Improvement and the CQC
- Integrated Care Boards (ICBs)
- provider organisations
- government departments
- researchers and commercial healthcare bodies
- National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE)
- patients, service users and carers
- the media
HES can be used for:
- monitoring trends and patterns in NHS hospital activity
- assessing effective delivery of care
- supporting local service planning
- providing the basis for national indicators of clinical quality
- revealing health trends over time
- informing patient choice
- determining fair access to health care
- developing, monitoring and evaluating government policy
- supporting NHS and parliamentary accountability
- national policy making
- benchmarking performance against other hospital providers or ICBs
- academic research
- analysing service usage and planning change
- providing advice to ministers and answering a wide range of parliamentary questions
- national and local press articles
- international comparison
