Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many admissions there were for alcohol-related illnesses in (a) York, (b) North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust area and (c) England in 2008-09 and in each year since.

Jane Ellison

The following tables contain the sum of the estimated alcohol attributable fractions (AAFs) for admissions for patients in (a) York (b) North Yorkshire and York primary care trust (PCT) area and (c) England over for the years 2008-09 to 2012-13.

It should be noted that these figures are not a count of people and represent an estimated number of admissions that were attributable to alcohol.

AAFs are based on the proportion of a given diagnosis or injury that is estimated to be attributed to alcohol. Some diagnoses or injuries will, by definition, be wholly attributable to alcohol and have an AAF of one, others will only be partly attributable to alcohol and have an AAF greater than zero, but less than one. Diagnoses or injuries that are not attributable at all to alcohol will have an AAF of zero.

These figures are derived by summing all AAFs for the relevant admissions and should therefore only be interpreted as an estimate of the number of admissions that can be attributed to alcohol.

In addition, partially AAFs are not applicable to children aged under 16 years, therefore figures for this age group relate only to wholly – attributable admissions.

The NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care – Statistics on Alcohol: England, 2014 report manually implemented new methodology against the 2012-13 data in their report. However, no change to the underlying Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data has been currently made.

Sum of partially and wholly alcohol attributable fractions¹ for finished admission episodes (FAEs)² for patients for York Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, North Yorkshire and York PCT of treatment and England for 2008-09 to 2012-13³

York Teaching Hospital NHS Trust	Sum of wholly alcohol Attributable fractions (FAEs)1	Sum of partially alcohol Attributable fractions (FAEs)1	Total
2008-09	1,185	3,775.21	4,960.21
2009-10	1,259	3,673.31	4,932.31
2010-11	1,268	4,065.70	5,333.70
2011-12	1,225	3,952.58	5,177.58
2012-13	2,217	7,936.95	10,153.95

North Yorkshire and York PCT	Sum of wholly alcohol Attributable fractions (FAEs)1	Sum of partially alcohol Attributable fractions (FAEs)1	Total
2008-09	2,669	7,480.90	10,149.90
2009-10	3,029	9,246.72	12,275.72
2010-11	3,124	10,340.52	13,464.52
2011-12	3,097	10,846.87	13,943.87
2012-13	2,930	11,465.32	14,395.32

England	Sum of wholly alcohol Attributable fractions (FAEs)1	Sum of partially alcohol Attributable fractions (FAEs)1	Total
2008-09	237,820	707,649.50	945,469.50
2009-10	265,246	791,716.34	1,056,962.34
2010-11	287,198	881,067.56	1,168,265.56
2011-12	304,206	916,087.40	1,220,293.40
2012-13	294,786	937,677.63	1,232,463.63

Activity in English National Health Service Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.

Notes:

¹Alcohol –related admissions

The number of alcohol-related admissions is based on the methodology developed by the North West Public Health Observatory (NWPHO), which uses 48 indicators for alcohol-related illnesses, determining the proportion of a wide range of diseases and injuries that can be partly attributed to alcohol as well as those that are, by definition, wholly attributable to alcohol. Further information on these proportions can be found at:

www.nwph.net/nwpho/publications/AlcoholAttributableFractions.pdf

The AAF is set to 1 (100%) where the admission is considered to be entirely due to alcohol, e.g. in the case of alcoholic liver disease – these records are described as wholly alcohol attributable. The AAF is set to a value greater than 0 but less than 1 according to the NWPHO definition, e.g. the alcohol fraction of an admission with a primary diagnosis of C00 – malignant neoplasm of lip, where the patient is male and between 65 and 74 is 0.44 – these records are described as partly alcohol attributable.

These wholly and partly AAFs can be aggregated to supply an estimate of activity which can be considered wholly or partly attributable to alcohol.

Partly AAFs are not applicable to children under 16. Therefore figures for this age group relate only to wholly-attributable admissions, where the attributable fraction is one.

²Finished admissions episodes

A FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.

³Assessing 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, changes in activity may be due to changes in the provision of care.

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