National Clinical Classifications helpdesk
The National Clinical Classifications Helpdesk provided by NHS Connecting for Health is here to help you with clinical coding queries. We are the national resource for classifications, licensing, and all support materials for coding products.
How the helpdesk can help you
Our team of highly-qualified coders with experience in all areas of clinical coding exists to facilitate coding resolutions for the NHS. This includes NHS organisations to Government departments and academics.
The helpdesk operates 9-5 during working days and receive queries via our call centre, which is your first point-of-contact. Coding queries are submitted to the specialist classification team for resolution. We will ask you if we require clarification of your question such as additional information, anonymised supporting documentation etc while always endeavoring to meet our response times.
All the resolutions are rigorously quality assured before being returned to you with the definitive answer to your individual query. The helpdesk is a national advice resource for the NHS which establishes the national standards those using classifications must adhere to guarantee data quality.
When to submit queries to the national classifications helpdesk
The national clinical coding query mechanism gives you an idea of the steps answering a coding query from trust to national level.
We established the NHS Clinical Coding Query Mechanism over 10 years ago to ensure consistent national standards in coding guidance were consistently applied across the NHS. When all avenues to resolve coding queries at Trust level have been exhausted, the NHS can send queries and supporting information to us.
How to submit a query to the helpdesk
Submit a query on the appropriate form and include anonymised supporting information.These forms contain obligatory requirements and guidance for different users e.g. coders, clinical coding managers, auditors and trainers or non coders e.g. DH or NHS data analysts and business managers. Please take time to read the guidance before submitting your query to enable us to progress.
As each query is handled on a case-by-case basis we recommend that responses are considered as individual to their particular conditions and not indicative of general coding standards. We recommend resolutions are not passed on as examples in similar situations due to the individual nature of queries. Always refer to the general coding principles captured in the official publications Clinical Coding Instruction Manuals and the Coding Clinics.
Please contact us with all other general queries, via the Helpdesk on 01392 206 248, or email us at datastandards@nhs.net.
Sometimes the query is complex
Some queries may require further specialist or clinical input or be of policy or principles that have implications for coding standards. In the first instance the query will be forwarded to the UK Coding Review Panel for consideration.
Resolutions from the UK Coding Review Panel are then referred back to the Helpdesk caller and if necessary may be published in the Coding Clinic if national guidance to a standard is required. It will also be identified as a key learning point for coders in the relevant Clinical Coding Instruction Manual.
The scale of our work
Annually we deal with over approximately 2000 calls including extensive queries involving hundreds of codes (called shopping lists by the Team).
The team also answers urgent queries from both parliament and the press. If MPs or peers ask questions in the House of Commons, House of Lords or government committee then we are asked to identify the correct codes to enable analysis of the national database to support a response.
"The national clinical classifications helpdesk reply was quite excellent, and if that is a sample of the helpdesk team's general standard of work, they should be complemented for it."
'Thank you for that. I was confident that that was the correct answer, but I wanted complete clarification.'