Actually, I do this job.
FWIW in an acute trust that has over 100000 hospital provider spells (aka discharges) a year, it takes a team of 15 WTE staff to do the clinical coding. It's not like the hospital has a choice, the coded data is primariliy used for billing purposes these days...
Other hospitals have tried automatic coding through their Patient Administration Systems and it doesn't work. Either the data entered by the clinician isn't accurate enough (most doctors prefer to hand write in the casenote) or the main condition treated isn't put as the primary position - for example an othopaedic consultant may put the patient's tibial fracture in the primary field as that is what they have treated, yet the main condition treated may well be a pressure sore...
