Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in (a) Liverpool, Wavertree constituency and (b) the Liverpool City Region have been diagnosed with rickets in each year since 2010.

Information is not available in the format requested. The data that is available is shown in the following table.

Table 1 - Counts of finished admission episodes (FAEs)¹ with a primary diagnosis² of rickets³ in the Liverpool and Wavertree parliamentary constituency⁴, selected clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) of residence⁵, and selected primary care trusts (PCTs) of residence⁶ for 2010-11 to 2014-15⁷.

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

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

Notes:

1. A finished admission episode (FAE) is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.
2. The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and 7 prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital.
3. The ICD-10 code for Rickets is: E55.0 Rickets, active.
4. The Westminster Parliamentary Constituency code for each postcode.
5. The clinical commissioning group (CCG) containing the patient’s normal home address. This does not necessarily reflect where the patient was treated as they may have travelled to another area for treatment.
6. The strategic health authority (SHA) or primary care trust (PCT) containing the patient’s normal home address. This does not necessarily reflect where the patient was treated as they may have travelled to another SHA/PCT for treatment.
7. A change in methodology in 2011-12 resulted in an increase in the number of records where the PCT or strategic health authority (SHA) of residence was unknown. From 2006-07 to 2010-11 the current PCT and SHA of residence fields were populated from the recorded patient postcode. In order to improve data completeness, if the postcode was unknown the PCT, SHA and country of residence were populated from the PCT/SHA value supplied by the provider. From April 2011-12 onwards if the patient postcode is unknown the PCT, SHA and country of residence are listed as unknown.
8. 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.
9. Note that Hospital Episode Statistics (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.