OPCS Classification of Interventions and Procedures
OPCS-4 is a statistical classification for clinical coding of hospital interventions and procedures undertaken by the NHS.
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
Link to standard
- Documentation
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- 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
Dependencies and related standards
- Related standards
- International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Health Related Problems (ICD-10) SCCI0021
- SNOMED CT SCCI0034
- Clinical Risk Management: its Application in the Deployment and Use of Health IT Systems DCB0160
- Clinical Risk Management: its Application in the Manufacture of Health IT Systems DCB0129
- International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Health Related Problems (ICD-10)
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 basis and endorsements
- 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