Andrew Stephenson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many cases of sepsis there were in (a) East Lancashire, (b) the North West and (c) England in each of the last three years.

Ben Gummer

Data for finished discharge episodes (FDEs) with a primary or secondary diagnosis of sepsis for East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) of Residence, North West Government Office Region of Residence, and England for years 2011-12 to 2013-14 are provided below.

These figures refer only to hospital admissions and are not a count of patients as a patient may have had more than one episode of care within the same year.

Count of FDEs¹ with a primary or secondary diagnosis² of sepsis³ for East Lancashire CCG of Residence⁴, North West Government Office Region of Residence⁵ and England for 2011-12 to 2013 -14. Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre

Notes:

Note that HES include activity ending in the year in question and run from April to March, eg 2012-13 includes activity ending between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013.

1. FDE – A discharge episode is the last episode during a hospital stay (a spell), where the patient is discharged from the hospital or transferred to another hospital. Discharges do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one discharge from hospital within the period.

2. Number of episodes in which the patient had a primary or secondary diagnosis – The number of episodes where this diagnosis was recorded in any of the 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and 7 prior to 2002-03) primary and secondary diagnosis fields in a HES record. Each episode is only counted once, even if the diagnosis is recorded in more than one diagnosis field of the record.

3. ICD – 10 codes for Sepsis – A02.1 Salmonella sepsis, A20.7 Septicaemic plague. A21.7 Generalized tularaemia, A22.7 Anthrax sepsis. A26.7 Erysipelothrix sepsis, A28.0 Pasteurellosis, A28.2 Extraintestinal yersiniosis

A32.7 Listerial sepsis, A39.2 Acute meningococcaemia, A39.3 Chronic meningococcaemia, A39.4 Meningococcaemia, unspecified, A40.- Streptococcal sepsis, A41.- Other sepsis, A42.7 Actinomycotic sepsis, B37.7 Candidal sepsis, O85.X Puerperal sepsis, P36.- Bacterial sepsis of newborn

The following pair of codes is a dagger/asterisk code pair (D and A) which must be present together: A39.1 Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome

E35.1 Disorders of adrenal glands in diseases classified elsewhere

4. CCG of Residence – The CCG containing the patient’s normal home address. This does not necessarily reflect where the patient was treated as they may have travelled to another area for treatment.

5. Government Office Region of Residence – The Government Office Region of residence of the patient. It is derived from the patient’s postcode.

6. Assessing growth through time (Admitted patient care).

HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, apparent reductions in activity may be due to a number of procedures which may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and so no longer include in admitted patient HES data. Conversely, apparent increases in activity may be due to improved recording of diagnosis or procedure information.