Secondary Uses Service what's new

Find out what's new with the Secondary Uses Service (SUS) by reading our latest news and announcements.

April 2026

2026/27 SUS+, OPCSv4.11 and HRG Grouping – Update

10 April 2026

A table for Office of Population Censuses and Surveys Classification of Interventions and Procedures (OPCS) 4.11 to OPCS 4.10 mapping for pricing equivalence is available below. It is a one-to-one mapping of new and retired codes created by the NHS England Pricing team. This table is not the same as the coding equivalence table published in clinical coding guidance which includes mappings from 4.11 to combinations of 4.10 codes. The purpose of this table is to produce Healthcare Resource Groups (HRGs) from new 4.11 codes using the 25/26 grouping logic such that these HRGs will work with the published NHS National Payment Scheme prices.

SUS+ is commissioning a modified 25/26 AutoGrouper that will incorporate this table. OPCS 4.11 codes will be accepted as input, translated within the AutoGrouper to an equivalent OPCS 4.10 code before derivation of HRGs for use with the published prices. Results of the code mapping and substitution will be made available in data extracts from SUS+.

The table is provided should users wish to create their own mapping process to adjust their local input to the current standalone 25/26 Local Payment Grouper produced by the National Casemix Office. Please note that presenting OPCS 4.11 codes to a 25/26 grouper without first applying the translation will result in a UZ01Z (Invalid for grouping) HRG as these new codes are not recognised by that logic. It should also be noted that using the map means the inputs to the grouper are OPCS 4.10 codes, and in some instances the dominant grouping procedure returned will be the mapped code, not the original 4.11 code.

opcs_411_410_autogrouper_pricing_toce

Social and Personal Circumstances (SNOMED CT Expression) codes approved for use in Admitted Patient Care (APC) and Outpatient (OP) Commissioning Datasets

7 April 2026

The Veterans Health Care Alliance (VHCA) is currently rolling out a training programme with healthcare organisations to ensure that patients are asked if they would be willing to declare whether they are a member of the service armed forces (or their immediate family, reservist or veteran). This is to aid monitoring of compliance with the Armed Forces Covenant. With effect from 1 April 2026, healthcare providers are required to capture this information using SNOMED CT terms in the Social and Personal Circumstances (SNOMED CT expression) field.

The SUS+ release on 1 April 2026 enabled the submission of this data. The approved terms expected to be used for this purpose are available in the APC and OP SNOMED approved code list.

March 2026

2026/27 SUS+, OPCSv4.11 and HRG Grouping

27 March 2026

Those of you on the pricing distribution list will have seen the following which accompanied new prices for next year:

“From 1 April 2026, a new edition (v4.11) of OPCS procedure codes will be introduced. The national reimbursement system will be updated to reflect these new codes. A table of coding equivalence (TOCE) will be made available to providers and commissioners, who can use it in conjunction with the HRG4+ 2025/26 Local Payment Grouper. However, this may not take into account changes in coding practice. Where there is a significant impact as a result, changes should be neutralised using the counting and coding provisions in the NHS Standard Contract. NHS England will issue separate guidance on the treatment of ungrouped activity arising from OPCS-4.11 codes prior to the TOCE being available for reimbursement purposes.”

To update you on discussions this week, it is very likely that we will commission a revised Autogrouper to run on SUS+. This will use the table of coding equivalence mentioned above to prepare operation code input for use with 25/26 HRG grouping logic. Until that is implemented, activity coded with OPCS v4.11 codes will result in a UZ01Z ungrouped HRG – the codes are not valid for use with 25/26 HRG grouping logic. As you will see above this has been recognised as a consequence and will be communicated further via contracting and finance channels.

If you are set up and ready to use OPCS v4.11 from 1 April, in compliance with the standard, please go ahead as planned.

SUS+ will roll over all components and rules connected with tariffing and commissioning from this 25/26 financial year until the proposed replacement Autogrouper is made live. We expect to have made the necessary changes before April inclusion. It is likely the table of coding equivalence will be made available before this for use in your local processes.

February 2026

SUS+ purging of inactive records

19 February 2026

Due to disk space conservation on SUS+, we will now start to delete inactive records in SUS+ mid-year. Inactive records are records that have been superseded by another submission (logically deleted) and are not final (active) records in SUS+.

SUS+ is a data lake; we hold the most recent version of a record in live and its logically deleted copies until the logically deleted records are purged. We then archive all final records away from live 3 years later, leaving current financial year plus 2 in live.

We are now starting to purge targeted months inactive records, 6 months after its Payment by Results (PbR) Post Reconciliation (PREC) inclusion deadline.

This means if you submit April data on 11 June the data will be in the PbR PREC extract. But if you re-submit the same April records on 11 December and run an extract straight away, the new records will not be in the April PbR PREC extract, because the submission is after the April PREC inclusion date, but will be in the PbR Current and SEM extracts.

Because the records sent in June are now inactive (logically deleted), they will not appear in the re-run April PREC extract once they have been purged by SUS+ in November (6 months after April’s PREC deadline of June).

SUS+ takes the delivery each month of the PbR scheduled extracts very seriously, so please download your PbR REC and PREC extracts as soon as they are made available in the SUS+ portal.

Notification of guidance change on the classification of Same Day Emergency Care activity (SDEC)

10 February 2026

At the end of January 2026, NHS England ran a workshop with clinicians and data leads from acute providers to work through the details of how to capture specialty SDEC activity in the Admitted Patient Care (APC) dataset.

The workshop discussed SDEC definitions, the recording of first SDEC attendances and associated follow-up activity and the key metrics that the national SDEC data collection needs to provide. The outcomes of the workshop are being written up to share back with the group ahead of agreeing next steps.

In the meantime, we can clarify that the updated guidance will not apply to patient care delivered by Emergency Medicine within the Emergency Department, including ambulatory emergency medicine care, which will remain on Emergency Care Dataset (ECDS).

New ECDS Reports now on SUS+ Online Portal

6 February 2026

The specifications for the new ECDS portal report bundle are available. This bundle contains ECDS v4 data items and items submitted in CDS V6-2-3 Type 011 - Emergency Care CDS. Where submitted items in different schemas represent the same source data, they map to the same column in the new extract, and the corresponding NHS Data Dictionary links are to v4 items.

This new bundle is two extracts, linked by Generated Record ID, comprising one of single occurrence items and one for items that repeat when sent in the CDS.

All timestamp items are ready to hold the time zone if it is submitted. This will be included for information and potential local use only – SUS+ will not adjust the submitted time (which should represent clock time) for output in the corresponding time item for each event.

The new bundle will run alongside existing provision to allow planned transition. We plan to deprecate the existing ECDS bundle and associated reports in March 2027 and notice will be given here.

December 2025

SUS+ 2026-27 - Submission Timetable published

3 December 2025

The SUS+ 2026-27 Submission Timetable has been published on the SUS+ PbR Guidance webpage.

The timetable contains details of 2026-27 financial year submission and delivery dates for Reconciliation, Post-Reconciliation, HES deadlines and Annual HES Refresh inclusion dates.

November 2025

Notification of guidance change on the classification of Same Day Emergency Care activity

25 November 2025

A decision has been taken to change the reporting approach to speciality Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) activity from the Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS) as specified in version 4.0 of the ECDS Information Standard Notice to the Admitted Patient Care (APC) data set, with the expectation this is implemented from Spring 2026.

We will provide guidance on updated recording and reporting expectations by early 2026 but in the meantime, we ask providers in the process of shifting SDEC reporting into ECDS to pause and retain their current status quo.

2026/27 NHS Payment Scheme consultation prices implemented in SUS+

25 November 2025

On 24 November 2025, SUS+ successfully added the option to apply 2026/27 NHS Payment Scheme consultation prices to extracts from the SUS+ online portal.

The differences to the current tariff are below:

All Admitted Patient Care (APC) and all Maternity are unit prices.

Outpatient (OP) Follow Up and some Treatment Function Codes (TFCs) remain as guide prices.

Best Practice Extended:

Day cases added (same prices as OP procedures)
New Right Place Right Procedure activities (Minor dental procedures - 19 years and over, biopsy of gingiva, joint injection and joint injection under image control)

Note: The new suite of Referral To Treatment (RTT) Best Practice activities is not yet developed and is not part of this release.

Urgent and Emergency Care now has unit prices. Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) price introduced.

Note: To preserve current user ingest routines this is identified with derived Healthcare Resource Group (HRG) of 'SDEC' and not 'SDEC01' as found in the consultation Annex A workbook.

You can view reference data on our website.

September 2025

SUS+ Emergency Care Dataset (ECDS) SNOMED code lists

25 September 2025

As part of 24 September 2025 SUS+ release, the ECDS SNOMED code lists were updated in the system.

ECDS SNOMED approved code list

ECDS SNOMED mapped code list

ECDS MAX parent child codes

August 2025

2025/26 Pay Award Revised Prices Implemented in SUS+

29 August 2025

The release on Thursday 28 August 2025 implemented the revised prices issued on 27 June 2025 for use in SUS+. Updated SUS+ reference data is found on our Payment by Results guidance page. The new prices are effective from 1 April 2025 and all extracts after Thursday’s release will assign the new tariff to all activity from that date.

This release also extends the range of priced activity. Guide prices will be applied by SUS+ for:

- Maternity non-delivery HRGs
- Further Outpatient Treatment Function Codes
- Non-Consultant Led Outpatients
- Bilateral Cataracts HRGs
- Renal, Cardiothoracic and Stem Cell Transplants HRGs
- Acute Kidney Dialysis Unbundled HRGs
- Nuclear Medicine Unbundled HRGs
- Paediatric Critical Care Unbundled HRGs
- Neonatal Critical Care Unbundled HRGs

SUS+ Portal extracts have been remodelled within the existing specification structures to allow users to distinguish where Unit and Guide prices are applied. Document from July and August 2025 User Group presentations contains further details of the changes. The extract specifications are found here.

Items adjusted:

Number Unbundled Non-Priced HRGs
Number Unbundled Priced HRGs
Aggregate Unbundled Adjustment National
Aggregate Unbundled Adjustment Non-Mandatory
PbR Final Tariff
Unbundled Unit Tariff National
Unbundled Unit Tariff Non-Mandatory

in extracts

PbR APC Spells/Plus
Supp APC Spells/Plus
APC Full Online/Plus
OP Full Online
Supp OP

(These currently obsolete items in critical care extracts will be repurposed and follow in a subsequent release when development is complete

CC Unit Cost
CC Total Cost

in extracts

Critical Care Full Online/Plus

Note: the corresponding unbundled HRGs and prices are included in Spell and Episode extract items above.

Submissions to SUS+

19 August 2025

Section 46 of the technical guidance for the 2025/26 NHS Standard Contract states that providers should be paid on a quarterly freeze basis in 2025/26. Please note that if year to date data is submitted to SUS+ on each monthly inclusion date (or the day before), it is unlikely that SUS+ portal extracts run on those days will complete before 6pm.

SUS+ ECDS SNOMED code lists

7 August 2025

As part of last night's SUS+ release, the ECDS SNOMED code lists were updated in the system.

ECDS SNOMED approved code list

ECDS SNOMED mapped code list

ECDS MAX parent child codes

Submitting CDS Interchanges to SUS+

6 August 2025

The most common way to submit CDS Interchanges to SUS+ is via an assured XML middleware supplier.

But all submitting organisations have the option to submit to SUS+ without an XML middleware supplier.

The submitting organisation would have to

Set up and manage the submitting MESH mailbox.
Register and maintain the use of the EDI address (CDS Interchange Sender Id).
Submit the SR1 form to NSD to list the MESH mailbox id, EDI address, CDS sender ids and email addresses.
Action the correct use of MESH mailboxes, EDI address and CDS sender ids.
Validate all XML interchanges against an XML checking tool before submission.
Action all rejected interchange messages from SUS+ (e.g., incorrect provider codes, Bulk extract dates, XML schema failures).

SUS+ is not funded to provide education on creating valid XML CDS interchanges, hence why we have assured XML middleware suppliers.

If interchanges are rejected by SUS+ due to schema failures, the only message back to the submitter will be 'One or more records in this file have failed XML schema validation'.

May 2025

SUS+ has implemented CAM rules for 2025/26

16 May 2025

SUS+ implemented the changes to the Commissioner Assignment Methodology (CAM) for 2025/26 in the release of 15 May 2025.

Changes to Specialised Commissioning arrangements have been incorporated along with an adjustment of how SUS+ handles the PSS codes generated by SUS+ and those submitted by providers. For a SUS+ to consider activity as specialised one of the following conditions must be met:

SUS+ derives a PSS code by application of the Identification Rules (IR)
a submitted code for an Admitted Patient (APC CDS) does not have an IR but has a corresponding IR for Outpatients (OP CDS) and the provider is eligible to offer equivalent specialised OP activity
a submitted code for an Outpatient does not have an IR but has a corresponding IR for Admitted Patients and the provider is eligible to offer equivalent specialised APC activity
a submitted code for an Admitted Patient does not have an IR but has a corresponding IR for Outpatients and there is no provider eligibility check
a submitted code for an Outpatient does not have an IR but has a corresponding IR for Admitted Patients and there is no provider eligibility check
a submitted code for either an Admitted Patient or an Outpatient does not have an IR but is on the current list of Service Codes

Sources for data used by SUS+:

CAM guidance for 2025/26:

Commissioner assignment method 2025/26

April 2025

SUS+ ECDS SNOMED code lists

11 April 2025

As part of last night's SUS+ release, the ECDS SNOMED code lists were updated in the system.

ECDS SNOMED approved code list

ECDS SNOMED mapped code list

ECDS MAX parent child codes

2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme prices

11 April 2025

NHS Payment Scheme prices (Annex A – prices workbook (Excel)) published on 4 April 2025 were implemented in the SUS+ release on 10 April 2025. The reference data is found on our Payment by Results guidance.

SUS+ will support the new policy for Right Procedure Right Place (RPRP) by assigning the RPRP price to qualifying activity together with the associated RPRP flag. This activity is identified in all extracts with a Final Tariff Applied of ‘RPRP 2526’.

Note that the RPRP flag item is seven characters in length. Existing APC columns BPT Indicator and BPT Indicator Action will be populated with the RPRP flag and with an action ‘ADJTARIFF’ to indicate tariff has been adjusted. These two items have been added as new columns to the end of the Outpatient portal extract. BPT Indicator is now a 7 character item, extended from the current 6.

Further information on RPRP is found in Annex C – Guidance on best practice tariffs.

March 2025

SUS+ ECDS SNOMED code lists

27 March 2025

As part of last night's SUS+ release, the ECDS SNOMED code lists were updated in the system.

ECDS SNOMED approved code list

ECDS SNOMED mapped code list

ECDS MAX parent child codes

February 2025

2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme Consultation Prices – Ready for Use in SUS Online Portal

11 February 2025

Phase two is complete and users may now run selected activity periods from the SUS Online Portal with consultation prices, the current 2024/25 HRG Grouper, PSS Grouper and CAM rules.

See our consultation prices reference data.

2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme Consultation Prices - Update

7 February 2025

Phase 1 of implementation was released on 6 February. This has introduced the essential prerequisite option to select the 25/26 Consultation scenario from the SUS Online Portal. A second phase to populate extracts with the consultation prices will follow.

A further notice will be issued when this option is fully available.

2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme consultation prices

4 February 2025

In response to the publication of 2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme consultation materials, SUS+ has extracted the proposed prices from Annex A. These will be made available to run against user selected activity periods from the SUS online portal and will use the current 2024/25 Healthcare Resource Grouper, Prescribed Specialised Services Grouper and Commissioner Assignment Method rules.

Subject to successful testing this feature will be included in this week’s release. A further notice will confirm availability.