Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people had age-related macular degeneration in the UK in each of the last five years.

The Department does not collect data on the number of people with age-related macular degeneration.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre has provided the following table. This shows the number of finished admission episodes (FAEs), for England, where the primary diagnosis was ‘degeneration of the macular and posterior pole’.

Notes:

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

2. There is no specific code with the Hospital Episodes Statistics to be able to separately identify patients diagnosed with ‘Age related macular degeneration’. Information is, therefore, provided for ‘degeneration of macula and posterior pole’. This includes patients who have been diagnosed with Angioid streaks, Cyst, Drusen (degeneration) of macula, Hole, Puckering, Kuhnt-Junius degeneration, Senile macular degeneration (atrophic) (exudative), Toxic maculopathy.

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