Health and social care services JSNA

Planned care

In 2017 there were 32,820 day case hospital admissions in Rochdale borough (Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group). There were around 6,000 elective admissions over the same time period.

What is planned care?

Planned care can generally be divided into 3 categories: elective admissions, outpatient or day cases and regular day attenders. These admissions are planned in advance with a patient attending hospital on a pre-arranged date for a procedure. A planned admission that leads to patient benefit is a fundamental part of a functioning health system.

Outpatient or day case admissions

Outpatient or day case attendances refer to hospital admissions and appointments that don't require an overnight stay in hospital. Outpatient services are often the first point of contact that most elective care patients have with secondary care.

Elective admissions

After the initial outpatient appointment, the patient may be recalled for further outpatient appointments or may require admission to hospital as an inpatient for further treatment. Providing the patient does not need immediate admission, this is classed as an elective admission. This is the standard route for many common operations including cataract removal, hip and knee replacements.

Statistics on planned care

  • NHS Digital - the NHS Digital website publishes a range of statistics on hospital activity including an Integrated Care System (ICS) outcomes dataset and hospital admitted patient care activity.

Guidance and information on planned care