Version 4.9 of OPCS Classification of Interventions and Procedures came in force on 1 April 2020

OPCS-4 is a statistical classification for clinical coding of hospital interventions and procedures undertaken by the NHS. On 4 November 2019, OPCS 4.9 Classification of Interventions and Procedures was released. The implementation date is 1 April 2020.

OPCS-4 is updated every three years to reflect the current NHS clinical practice to support aggregate data for statistical purposes and reimbursement.

OPCS-4.9 contains updates released by the NHS Digital Terminology and Classifications Delivery Service and includes updates submitted by the NHS, NHS Digital, DHSC, NHS England and other organizations via the OPCS-4 Requests Portal.

Here you can see a brief summary of core changes OPCS-4.8 to OPCS-4.9:

• 28 new three-character category codes
• 223 new four-character subcategory codes
• Five (5) retired four-character subcategory codes
• One (1) changed three-character category code description
• 33 changes to four-character subcategory code descriptions
• 65 changes to three-character category code involving a change to note only (new, deleted or changed includes, excludes and notes)
• 83 changes to four-character subcategory code involving a change to note only (new, deleted or changed includes, excludes and notes)
• 352 new index entries
• 43 deleted index entries

The list of 28 new three-character category codes includes:

• C91 “Operations on anterior segment of eye”
• H71 “Therapeutic endoscopic operations on enteric pouch”
• M07 “Therapeutic ureteroscopic operations on kidney”
• M24 “Other urinary diversion”
• Q58 “Delivery of terminated fetus”
• R09 “Open operations on fetus”
• R11 “Other therapeutic percutaneous operations on fetus”
• R13 “Other operations on fetus”
• S29 “Distant flap of skin and bone”
• S32 “Distant flap of skin and multiple tissues”
• U38 “Other diagnostic endocrinology”
• U41 “Provocation test”
• V69 “Other primary decompression operations on cervical spine”
• V70 “Other revisional decompression operations on cervical spine”
• O35 “Open operations on joint”
• O37 “Reverse polarity total prosthetic replacement of shoulder joint using cement”
• O38 “Reverse polarity total prosthetic replacement of shoulder joint not using”
• O39 “Reverse polarity total prosthetic replacement of shoulder joint”
• O40 “Reverse polarity hybrid prosthetic replacement of shoulder joint using”
• X69 “Other radiotherapy”
• Y28 “Insertion of other material into organ NOC”
• Y45 “Approach to organ under other control”
• Y68 “Other approach to organ under image control”
• O44 “Other external beam radiotherapy”
• O34 “Other biliary tract”
• O36 “Other mouth”
• O43 “Part of heart”
• O45 “Other aorta”

See the full details here.

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