Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have had varicose veins surgery in each of the last five years.
Jane Ellison
This information is not available in the format requested.
In the following table, we have provided information concerning the number of finished consultant episodes (FCEs)1 with a primary or secondary procedure2 of varicose vein treatment3 for the years 2008-09 to 2012-134. It should be noted that this is not a count of people as the same person may have had more than one episode of care within the same time period. This data also includes non-surgical treatment such as radio-frequency ablation and other treatments.
|
Year |
FCEs |
|
2008-09 |
36,997 |
|
2009-10 |
36,366 |
|
2010-11 |
33,620 |
|
2011-12 |
27,731 |
|
2012-13 |
24,767 |
Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector
Notes:
1A finished consultant episode is a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FCEs are counted against the year in which they end. Figures do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay in hospital or in different stays in the same year.
2The number of episodes where the procedure (or intervention) was recorded in any of the 24 procedure fields in a Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. A record is only included once in each count, even if the procedure is recorded in more than one procedure field of the record. Note that more procedures are carried out than episodes with a main or secondary procedure.
3Codes used to identify varicose vein treatment include combined operations on varicose vein of leg, ligation of varicose vein of leg, injection into varicose vein of leg, other operations on varicose vein of leg, and transluminal operations on varicose vein of leg.
4HES 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), Health and Social Care Information Centre
