Inpatient census 2022: hospital based complex clinical care and long stay

2. Methodology & further information

Time period and scope

The sixth Inpatient Census was carried out by the Scottish Government and NHS Boards as at 23:59, 11 April 2022. This is the fourth time the Census has collected information on HBCCC patients.

The Census was conducted in 3 parts and covered:

• Part 1: every patient occupying a psychiatric, addiction or learning disability inpatient bed in an NHS Scotland facility on the Census date.
• Part 2: every mental health, addiction or learning disability patient whose care is funded by NHS Scotland, but is being treated in a facility that is out with NHS Scotland (e.g. in a Local Authority care home, in a private hospital, in a NHS England facility), on the Census date.
• Part 3: every patient who was in receipt of Hospital Based Complex Clinical Care (HBCCC) or Long Stay in general acute or community hospital inpatient beds on the Census date.

The Census guidance notes are not available in an accessible form just now but we will publish them soon.

This report contains analysis about patients in receipt of Hospital Based Complex Clinical Care or are Long Stay from Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the Census. Patients who were treated in the State Hospital are excluded from this report.

Data completeness

NHS Scotland facilities (Part 1)

All NHS Scotland territorial boards which have psychiatric, addiction or learning disability inpatient beds provided a return.

The State Hospital (Special NHS Board) provided a return but for the purposes of this report, The State Hospital has been excluded from analysis.

Data completeness for individual Census questions varied. Where there was missing data, this has been footnoted against the corresponding table or displayed in the chart. Although most health boards had some missing data, for 143 of their patients (47%) NHS Tayside could only provide minimal data, including admission dates, age and diagnoses.

Patients treated outwith NHS Scotland (Part 2)

All NHS Scotland territorial boards which have mental health, addiction or learning disability patients whose care is funded by NHS Scotland, but are being treated in a facility that is out with NHS Scotland provided a return.

Data completeness for individual Census questions varied. Where there was missing data, this has been footnoted against the corresponding table or displayed in the chart.

Hospital Based Complex Clinical Care in general acute beds (Part 3)

All territorial NHS Boards which have HBCCC or LS patients in general acute beds, community hospitals or who are funded by NHS Scotland but are treated outwith NHS Scotland hospitals provided a return.

Data collection

The Scottish Government's ScotXed Unit provide data collection and validation support for a number of statistical returns across Education, Health, Social Care, Social Work, Transport, Housing, Communities, Finance, Justice, Environment and some 3^rd Sector. The ScotXed Unit provided secure data collection software (procXed.net) and first stage data validation checks. Further information about the data collection software can be found in the Data Privacy Impact Assessment which can be obtained on request from MHIC@gov.scot

Health & Social Care Analysis Division undertook 2^nd stage validation checks.

The data collection, analysis and report has been overseen and produced by statisticians. All statisticians in the Scottish Government are part of the Government Statistical Service (GSS) which comprises the statistics divisions of all major departments in the UK Government, and the devolved Governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland plus the Office for National Statistics, which has a coordinating role for the GSS.

Data confidentiality

A Data Protection Impact Assessment was undertaken prior to the Census which outlines how patient confidentiality is maintained. The Data Protection Impact Assessment can be obtained on request from MHIC@gov.scot

In addition, statistical disclosure control has been applied to the analysis. Statistical Disclosure Control (SDC) covers a range of ways of changing data which are used to control the risk of an intruder finding out confidential information about a person or unit (such as a household or business). This publication has used the following methods where there are under 5 patients in a particular category:

• Suppression of possibly disclosive cells (e.g. where the value is small) which means that the value for that cell in the table is not given and secondary suppression of cells which means at least one other value in the row or column is also not given to ensure that disclosive cells cannot be deduced through subtraction;
• Table redesign and recoding, where cells are grouped together to protect small value cells.

Further information about Statistical Disclosure Control is available here:

Statistical disclosure control - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Access to the data for further research

To enable further research and statistical analysis, extracts of the Inpatient Census data may be made available for approved researchers.

Academic researchers must initially apply to the 'Statistics Public Benefit and Privacy Panel' or the 'Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care^[1]' to gain access to the Inpatient Census data. If the 'Statistics Public Benefit and Privacy Panel' or the 'Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care' approve an application then a copy of the original application form and a copy of the approval letter should be emailed to the following address MHIC@gov.scot for approval by the Scottish Government (Health & Social Care Analysis Division and the Principal Medical Officer for Mental Health).

NHS Boards will have a version of the Inpatient Census dataset which contains information about patients for whom they are responsible for providing treatment for, or are responsible for funding. NHS boards will have their own arrangements in place for researchers to access health data. All Boards have a Caldicott Guardian who is responsible for assuring confidentiality and enabling appropriate data sharing, and a director responsible for research and development.

Correspondence and enquiries

For enquiries about this publication please contact:

Health and Social Care Analysis (HSCA) is one of a number of Analytical Services Divisions in the Scottish Government. HSCA's main objective is to continue to build the statistical, economic and research evidence base for Health and Care in Scotland, and to provide analytical support, briefing and advice to support policy development and service planning.

For general enquiries about Scottish Government statistics please contact:

How to access background or source data

The data collected for this statistical bulletin may be made available on request, subject to consideration of legal and ethical factors. Please contact statistics.enquiries@gov.scot for further information.

Complaints and suggestions

If you are not satisfied with our service or have any comments or suggestions, please write to:

If you would like to be consulted about statistical collections or receive notification of publications, please register your interest at www.gov.scot/scotstat

Details of forthcoming publications can be found at

Official statistics: forthcoming publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)