Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people had hernia operations in each of the last five years.

This information is not available in the format requested.

The following table provides information concerning the number of finished consultant episodes (FCEs)¹ with a main or secondary procedure² of hernia operation^3,4 for the years 2009-10 to 2013-14⁵.

Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector

Notes:

1. A FCE 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.

2. The number of episodes where the procedure (or intervention) was recorded in any of the 24 (12 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and 4 prior to 2002-03) 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.

3. The following codes were used to identify hernia operations:

G23 - Repair of diaphragmatic hernia

R01.2 - Fetoscopic insertion of tracheal plug for congenital diaphragmatic hernia

R04.6 - Percutaneous insertion of fetal tracheal plug for congenital diaphragmatic hernia

T16.4 - Repair of congenital diaphragmatic hernia

T19 - Simple excision of inguinal hernial sac

T20 - Primary repair of inguinal hernia

T21 - Repair of recurrent inguinal hernia

T23 - Repair of recurrent femoral hernia

T24 - Primary repair of umbilical hernia

T25 - Primary repair of incisional hernia

T26 - Repair of recurrent incisional hernia

T27 - Repair of other hernia of abdominal wall

T97 - Repair of recurrent umbilical hernia

T98 - Repair of recurrent other hernia of abdominal wall

4. Changes to coding classifications: OPCS-4:

Operative procedure codes were revised from 2006-07:

- 2013-14, 2012-13 and 2011-12 data uses OPCS 4.6 codes

- 2010-11 and 2009-10 data uses OPCS 4.5 codes

- 2008-09 and 2007-08 data uses OPCS 4.4 codes

- 2006-07 data uses OPCS 4.3 codes

- Data prior to 2006-07 uses OPCS 4.2 codes

All codes that were in OPCS 4.2 remain in later OPCS 4 versions, however the introduction of OPCS 4.3 codes enable the recording of interventions and procedures which were not possible in OPCS 4.2. In particular, OPCS 4.3 codes onwards include high cost drugs and diagnostic imaging, testing and rehabilitation. Some such activity may have been coded under different codes in OPCS 4.2. These changes may explain some apparent variations over time. Care needs to be taken in using the newer codes as some providers of data did not start using the new codes at the beginning of each data year.

5. 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 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013.

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