Skip to main content
BETA A NHS service powered by standards. Feedbackopens in a new window will help us improve.

OPCS Classification of Interventions and Procedures

OPCS-4 is a statistical classification for clinical coding of hospital interventions and procedures undertaken by the NHS.

Documentation

About this standard

Publisher
NHS England
Reference code
DAPB0084 Amd 36/2022
Publication date
01/11/2022
Publication version
4.10.0
Status
Active
Show definitions of statuses

Active. Active standards are stable, maintained and have been approved, assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.

Deprecated Deprecated standards are available for use and are maintained, but are being phased out, so new functionality will not be added.

Retired standards Retired standards are not being maintained or supported and should not be used.

Standard type
Information standards
Show definitions of standard types

Collections. A Collection is a systematic gathering of a specified selection of data or information for a particular stated purpose from existing records held within health and care systems and electronic devices.

Extractions. An extraction is a type of collection that is pulled from an operational system by the data controller and transmitted to the receiver without additional processing or transcription by the sender.

Information standards. Information standards are agreed ways of doing something, written down as a set of precise criteria so they can be used as rules, guidelines, or definitions.

Technical Standards and specifications. Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.

Contact point

Using this standard

Applies to
All providers of NHS funded hospital services
Impacts on
Implementation of this information standard impacts all health IT systems suppliers providing systems to the above providers; suppliers should work with their customers to determine necessary changes.
Associated medias
Conformance date
01/04/2023
Effective from
01/04/2023

Topics and care settings

Topic
  • Data definitions and terminologies
  • Reference data
Care setting
  • Community health
  • Hospital
  • Maternity
  • Mental health
  • Urgent and Emergency Care
Related standards

Review Information

Scope
NHS Services
Sponsor

Ian Townend, Chief Information Architect, NHS England

Senior Responsible Officer

Alex Elias, NHS Digital

Business Lead
Lynn Bracewell, NHS Digital
Approval date
27/10/2022
Legal authority

Section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012

This information standard is published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012

More information

The classification is mandatory for use by health care providers to support various forms of data collections for secondary uses.

This release is part of the regular review and uplift of OPCS-4 every 3 years to reflect current NHS clinical practice to support aggregate data for statistical purposes and reimbursement. There are no changes to the underlying architecture or structure of OPCS-4.

Page last updated: 19 June 2024