Speeches

Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many cases of sepsis there were in each region of England in each of the last five years.

Ben Gummer

Data for finished discharge episodes (FDEs) with a primary or secondary diagnosis of sepsis for patients in each government office region of residence in England, in each year from 2010-11 to 2014-15 are provided below.

These figures relate only to hospital admissions and do not include those patients who were diagnosed in a primary care setting, or those who attended hospital as an Outpatient.

This is not a count of patients as the same 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 patients in each government office region of residence for 2010-11 to 2014-154. Activity in English National Health Service Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector

Government office region

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

2014-15

North East

4,798

5,074

5,655

6,275

7,388

North West

13,258

13,109

14,708

17,221

20,922

Yorkshire and The Humber

9,182

9,189

10,146

11,338

12,857

East Midlands

7,316

8,115

9,831

10,863

12,998

West Midlands

7,772

7,915

10,518

12,297

13,812

East of England

10,380

10,432

11,647

13,108

16,029

London

14,894

15,223

15,580

17,860

19,723

South East

13,945

15,344

16,604

19,239

21,378

South West

8,013

8,292

9,805

10,967

12,722

England – Not Otherwise Specified

48

83

75

84

102

Unknown/Non-England

2,275

8,239

9,716

3,570

3,841

Total

91,881

101,015

114,285

122,822

141,772

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

The increasing incidence of sepsis is likely to be due to people living longer and more medical and surgical interventions being performed. People with series co-morbidities are more likely to survive their illness, and for a longer period of time than in previous decades, which leads to much of the hospital-acquired sepsis that now occurs.

Notes:

1Finished Discharge Episode (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.

2Number 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 Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. Each episode is only counted once, even if the diagnosis is recorded in more than one diagnosis field of the record.

3ICD-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

4Assessing 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.

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