Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS)#
Last modified: 21 Oct 2026
People who received care in Accident and Emergency (A&E) settings in NHS hospitals in England.
More information about this dataset is available here.
1. Summary#
ECDS replaced the HES Accident and Emergency (HESAE) dataset in 2020. Data collected include demographics, dates of attendance, admission and discharge, presenting complaints, outcomes of attendance, waiting times, clinical investigations, diagnosis and treatment.
| Dataset Descriptor | Dataset-specific Information |
|---|---|
| Name of Dataset in TRE | NHSE_ECDS |
| Citation (APA) | Data Services, NHS England (NHSE). (2025). NHS England: Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS). UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC). https://doi.org/10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00359-04 |
| Download Citation | Citeproc JSON BibTeX RIS |
| Series | NHS England |
| Owner | NHS England |
| Copyright | Copyright © (2026), NHS England. Data re-used with the permission of NHS England. All rights reserved. |
| Temporal Coverage in the TRE | 10/2017 - ongoing |
| Geographical Coverage | England |
| Participant Count | 191286 |
| Number of Variables | 376 |
| Number of Observations | 785146 |
| Key Link | https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-sets/emergency-care-data-set-ecds |
| Keywords | None |
| Latest Extract Date | 2024-04-26 |
| Specific Restrictions to Data Use | None |
| Build a Data Request | https://explore.ukllc.ac.uk/ |
2. Metrics#
| Cohort | Participant Count |
|---|---|
| AIRWAVE | 23811 |
| ALSPAC | 3329 |
| BCS70 | 4366 |
| BIB | 10223 |
| ELSA | 5271 |
| EPICN | 10427 |
| EXCEED | 6665 |
| GLAD | 55855 |
| MCS | 13159 |
| NCDS58 | 4786 |
| NEXTSTEP | 3999 |
| NIHRBIO_COPING | 10601 |
| NSHD46 | 1820 |
| TEDS | 5165 |
| TRACKC19 | 8164 |
| TWINSUK | 7960 |
| UKHLS | 4033 |
| UKREACH | 11652 |
3. Version History#
| Version | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Version Date | 21 Dec 2022 | 13 Apr 2023 | 26 Apr 2024 | 09 Sep 2025 |
| Number of Variables | 221 | 221 | 220 | 376 |
| Number of Observations | 189675 | 218869 | 353157 | 785146 |
| DOI | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00359-01 | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00359-02 | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00359-03 | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00359-04 |
| Change Log | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00359-01/activities | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00359-02/activities | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00359-03/activities | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00359-04/activities |
4. Documentation#
| Document Type | Title | Author/Organisation | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overview | Understanding ECDS | UKLLC | Describes how the ECDS should be used and interpreted in the UK LLC context. The guide includes strengths and limitations, tips for researchers, scope and coverage, structure, coding systems used, and evolution of the dataset. |
| Overview | Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS) User Guide V4.7 (2024) | NHS England | NHS England guidance on ECDS coding, data collection and interpretation. |
5. Useful Syntax#
Below we will include syntax that may be helpful to other researchers in the UK LLC TRE. For longer scripts, we will include a snippet of the code plus a link to the UK LLC GitHub repository where you can find the full scripts.