DAPB0084: 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 information standard

OPCS-4 is a statistical classification for clinical coding of hospital interventions and procedures undertaken by the NHS. The classification is mandatory for use by health care providers to support various forms of data collections for secondary uses.

The Terminology and Classifications Delivery Service within NHS Digital has responsibility for the support, maintenance, development and licensing of OPCS-4 which is governed by Crown Copyright.

This information standard is published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. An Information Standards Notice (see below) provides an overview of scope and implementation timescales, and the other listed documents provide further detail for those who have to implement the information standard.

Current release

OPCS-4.10

Release date	1/11/2022
Release number	Amd 36/2022
Release title	Version 4.10
Stage	Implementation
Key documents	Requirements Specification (Amd 36/2022)¹ Change Specification (Amd 36/2022)¹ Implementation Guidance (Amd 36/2022)¹ Information Standards Notice (Amd 36/2022)
Supporting documents	Final Summary of Changes (Amd 36/2022) NHS Data Model and Dictionary Change Request 1867 (Amd 36/2022)
Further information	NHS Digital: Terminology and Classifications Delivery Service

¹As of 1 February 2023, NHS Digital has merged with NHS England to bring together one single organisation, referred to as NHS England. As a result, the URL for Delen - the information sharing and collaboration platform for users of Terminology and Classifications products - will change from www.hscic.kahootz.com to www.nhsengland.kahootz.com.

This site is referenced throughout the documents above. The documents are currently being reviewed to correct any broken links and will be republished in due course.

Pages on these sites may still be accessed by replacing ‘hscic’ with ‘nhsengland’ in relevant links.

Previous releases

OPCS-4.9

Release date	08/10/2019
Release number	Amd 18/2019
Release title	Version 4.9
Stage	Maintenance
Key documents	Requirements Specification (Amd 18/2019) [Archive Content] Change Specification (Amd 18/2019) Implementation Guidance (Amd 18/2019) Information Standards Notice (Amd 18/2019) Corrigendum (Amd 18/2019) (December 2019)
Supporting documents	Final Summary of Changes (Amd 18/2019) (December 2019) NHS Data Model and Dictionary Change Request 1723 (Amd 18/2019)
Further information	NHS Digital: Terminology and Classifications Delivery Service

OPCS-4.8

Release date	19/10/2016
Release number	Amd 105/2015
Release title	Version 4.8
Stage	Maintenance
Key documents	Requirements Specification (Amd 105/2015) [Archive Content] Change Paper (Amd 105/2015) Implementation Guidance (Amd 105/2015) Information Standards Notice (Amd 105/2015)
Supporting documents	Final Summary of Changes (Amd 105/2015) NHS Data Model and Dictionary Change Request 1577 (Amd 105/2015) Advance Notification (issued April 2016) (Amd 105/2015)

Documentation for earlier, superseded versions of OPCS can be found on the on the archived Information Standards Board website.

Updates

Update 5 December 2019: The latest release (DCB0084 Amd 18/2019) was published on 8 October 2019. Since then, the need for a small change to a supporting document has been identified and a Corrigendum has been issued. Note that there is no impact on either the published Requirements Specification or the Implementation Guidance; however an updated Summary of Changes has been published. If you have any questions about this Corrigendum, or other OPCS issues, you can contact the developers by emailing: [email protected].

Last edited: 1 February 2023 12:00 pm