Glossary
The NHS (National Health Service) can be an alphabet soup of three-letter-acronyms. This page covers some of the main acronyms used in this book. There is also a helpful Jargon Buster maintained by the NHS Confederation.
A
A&G
Advice and Guidance
A quick-reaction clinical questions process designed to avoid unnecessary referrals from primary care by responding quickly to medical queries about referral options for a patient.
ABCD
Activity, Bottleneck, Capacity, Demand.
A common mental model used to describe demand and capacity measurement.
ALOS
Average Length of Stay
See also LOS. LOS is the preferred term at NUH.
B
BAF
Board Assurance Framework
BOK
Body of Knowledge
C
CDC
Community Diagnostic Centre
CRG
Clinical Reference Group
CSU
Commissioning Support Unit
An organisation that provides commissioners with external support, specialist skills and knowledge to support them in their role. There are currently 4 CSUs:
NHS North of England CSU; NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands CSU; NHS Midlands and Lancashire CSU; NHS South, Central and West CSU;
CT
Computed Tomography
An important diagnostic imaging process, and one of the 15 diagnostic modalities measured in the DM01 performance dataset.
D
DM01
A performance dataset related to the main diagnostic test modalities
DNA
Did Not Attend
The patient did not arrive for a scheduled appointment.
See also WNB
DTA
Decision To Admit
This is a timing point, often in ED, when the decision to admit a patient to hospital as an inpatient is made. The following timing point will be “admission”. The time between these timing points is monitored as a performance metric.
E
ECG
Electrocardiogram
One of the 15 diagnostic modalities measured in the DM01 performance dataset
EL
Elective
EPMA
Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration
EPR
Electronic Patient Records System
F
FDS
Faster Diagnosis Standard
A cancer performance measure, measuring the length of time from urgent referral to ruling out or diagnosis of cancer. The performance standard is 28 days.
FDS
First Diagnostic Scan
A timing point within diagnostic pathway tracking
FTE
Full-time Equivalent
See also WTE
G
H
HED
Healthcare Evaluation Data
HED is a subscription-based online benchmarking solution developed by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
HES
Hospital Episode Statistics
HES is a curated data product containing details about admissions, outpatient appointments and historical accident and emergency attendances at NHS hospitals in England.
HVLC
High Volume Low Complexity
I
ICB
Integrated Care Board
ICD10
International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems
See also OPCS4
IP
Inpatient
J
K
L
LOS
Length of Stay
See also ALOS. LOS is the preferred term at NUH.
M
MBRRACE
Maternal and Babies-Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries
MDC
Making Data Count
A data-literacy initiative led by NHSE to increase the use of Statistical Process Control techniques in hospital measurement and management processes.
MFFD
Medically Fit For Discharge
See also MSFT
MRI
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
An important diagnostic imaging process, and one of the 15 diagnostic modalities measured in the DM01 performance dataset.
MSFT
Medically Safe for Transfer
See also MFFD
N
NEL
Non-Elective
See also UEC
NEWS
National Early Warning Score
NHP
New Hospitals Programme
NHS
National Health Service
NICU
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
See also NNU
NNU
Neonatal Unit
See also NICU
NOF
NHS Oversight Framework
Introduced in June 2025, the NOF describes a consistent and transparent approach to assessing integrated care boards (ICBs) and NHS trusts, ensuring public accountability for performance and providing a foundation for how NHS England works with systems and providers to support improvement.
O
OP
Outpatient
OPCS4
OPCS Classification of Interventions and Procedures
See also ICD10
OPPROC
Outpatient procedure
P
PACS
Picture Archiving and Communication System
PAS
Patient Administration System
Pathology
The pathology lab is responsible for testing samples (e.g. blood, urine, fluids, biopsies) to support the diagnosis of patients.
PCN
Primary Care Network
PEWS
Pediatric Early Warning Score
PIFU
Patient-Initiated Follow Up
Plain Film
Standard X-ray image taken without contrast agents (e.g. dyes or barium)
PLCM
Patient Level Contract Monitoring
PLCM is a means to enable the interchange, in a uniform format, of monthly patient-level contract monitoring data between commissioners and providers of healthcare.
POC
Point Of Care
POD
Point of Delivery
POD is the location where an activity, event or item is provided to a patient.
PTL
Patient Tracking List
Q
R
R
A statistical programming language used by data analysts and data scientists
RIS
Radiology Information System
RTL
Referral Tracking List
RTT
Referral to Treatment
S
SDEC
Same-Day Emergency Care
SITREP
Situation Report
SOP
Standard Operating Procedure
SPC
Statistical Process Control
SUS+
Secondary Uses Service
SUS+ is a comprehensive repository for commissioning data sets in England. It is held by NHS England and it enables a range of reporting and analyses to support the NHS in the delivery of healthcare services.
T
TOC
Tranasfer of Care
TTO
To Take Out
A drugs prescription that the patient takes away on the day they are discharged from inpatient care.
U
UEC
Urgent and Emergency Care
US
Ultrasound
A diagnostic imaging process. Non-obstetric ultrasound is one of the 15 diagnostic modalities measured in the DM01 performance dataset.
V
W
WLI
Waiting List Initiative
Premium-paid working time agreed in order to reduce the size of a waiting list.
WNB
Was not Brought
The patient did not attend a scheduled appointment, but is dependent on others to bring them to the appointments (e.g. pediatric or elderly patients).
See also DNA
WTE
Whole-time Equivalent
See also FTE
X
XmR
A type of Statistical Process Control (SPC) chart