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Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse

Answer

The following table gives the total number of alcohol-related finished admissions and the for the years 2004-05 to 2006-07.

Alcohol-related finished admissions
	Number
2004-05	644,185
2005-06	735,512
2006-07	799,120
Notes:
1. The number of alcohol-related admissions is based on the methodology developed by the North West Public Health Observatory (NWPHO). Following international best practice, the NWPHO methodology includes a wide range of diseases and injuries in which alcohol plays a part and estimates the proportion of cases that are attributable to the consumption of alcohol. Details of the conditions and associated proportions can be found in the report Jones et al. (2008) “Alcohol-attributable fractions for England: Alcohol-attributable mortality and hospital admissions”.
Includes activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.
2. Finished admission episodes:
A finished admission episode is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Finished admission episodes are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.
3. Primary diagnosis:
The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 14 (seven prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital.
4. Secondary diagnoses:
As well as the primary diagnosis, there are up to 13 (six prior to 2002-03) secondary diagnosis fields in HES that show other diagnoses relevant to the episode of care.
5. Number of episodes in which the patient had an alcohol-related primary or secondary diagnosis:
These figures represent the number of episodes where an alcohol-related diagnosis was recorded in any of the 14 (seven prior to 2002-03) primary and secondary diagnosis fields in a HES record. Each episode is only counted once in each count, even if an alcohol-related diagnosis is recorded in more than one diagnosis field of the record.

The information for alcohol-related attendances at accident and emergency departments is not collected centrally.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

485 c665-6W; 241289

Session

2008-09

Subjects

Alcoholic drinks Misuse

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk