Provisional Monthly Hospital Episode Statistics for Admitted Patient Care, Outpatients and Accident and Emergency Data - April 2012 to August 2012

Monthly HES data for Inpatients

In the year from September 2011 to August 2012 there were:

• 17.7 million finished consultant episodes (FCEs), 59.6% (10.5 million) of which included at least one procedure or intervention, and 6.0 million of which were day cases.

• 15.2 million finished admission episodes (FAEs), of which 5.3 million were emergency admissions.

Monthly HES - Inpatient Clinical coding coverage

The shortfall between the most recent month's data is more pronounced when considering clinical (procedures and diagnoses) coverage. 3.1 per cent more procedures and 6.0 per cent more diagnoses were coded in the HES data submitted to SUS by 19/10/2012 (Month 6) - extract used for this publication, compared to the HES data submitted to SUS by 21/9/2012 (Month 5) used for 9th November 2012 publication. We accordingly recommend extra caution using clinical codes for the most recent months data.

Monthly HES for Outpatients

In the year from September 2011 to August 2012 there were:

• 92.2 million outpatient appointments made, with 73.7 million (80.0 per cent) of these attended by the patient.

• 6.8 million outpatient appointments not attended by the patient, representing 7.4 per cent of all appointments.

Provisional Monthly HES data for Accident and Emergency (Experimental Data)

In the year from September 2011 to August 2012 there were:

• 18.0 million A&E attendances recorded in A&E HES. Of these 3.7 million (20.7 per cent) resulted in admission to hospital for inpatient treatment, 3.6 million (19.8 per cent) resulted in a GP follow up, and 7.0 million (38.9 per cent) were discharged with no follow up.

TOI: Intentional Self-Harm

• From September 2011 to August 2012 there were 110,956 finished admission episodes with a cause code of intentional self-harm. This is a 0.4 per cent increase from September 2010 to August 2012 when there were 110,491.

• There was very little monthly or seasonal variation in admissions for self-harm.

• 59.3 per cent of admissions were for females, with the largest five year age group 15-19. For males, the age group with the most admissions was 20-24.

• The age group that has seen the largest change in the last year is 15-19 with a reduction of 1,128 admissions to 15,678 (6.7 per cent decrease). There has been a small increase in admissions for males and females between the ages of forty and sixty.

• 89.4% (99,196) of admissions were caused by self-poisoning including drugs and alcohol, 7.6 per cent (8,416) were caused by sharp or blunt objects and 3.0 per cent (3,344) by other means including hanging, drowning, jumping and firearms.

• There was a high degree of variation in admission rates for self harm regionally with rates in the North East nearly three times higher than in London (330 admissions per 100,000 population compared to 114 per 100,000).

• 91.2 per cent (101,144) of admissions did not require a procedure. Procedures that were carried out included ventilation support (1.4 per cent, 1,516), diagnostic imaging of central nervous system (1.2 per cent, 1,302), suture of skin (0.9 per cent, 990), continuous infusion of therapeutic substance (0.6 per cent, 646) and rehabilitation assessment (0.5 per cent, 582).

• The average length of hospital stay was 1 day.