Epilepsy
(asked on 27th May 2015) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in each age cohort suffered from epilepsy in each of the last five years.
There have been no discussions between my Rt. hon. friend the Secretary of State for Health and the Royal Colleges about the use of radical brain surgery to reduce death from epilepsy. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance sets out that surgery should be a treatment option for patients with complex epilepsy who do not respond to conventional treatment. In addition, NHS England has commissioned a specialised children’s epilepsy service at four centres in England to improve access to earlier surgical intervention.
NICE estimates that epilepsy affects between 362,000 and 415,000 people in England. The following table provides figures for finished admission episodes (FAEs) with a primary diagnosis of epilepsy by age group, 2009-10 to 2013-14:
Year | FAEs per age group | |||||||||||
0-9 | 10-19 | 20-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60-69 | 70-79 | 80-89 | 90+ | Unknown | Total | |
2009-10 | 8,188 | 5,410 | 5,113 | 5,263 | 6,135 | 4,645 | 3,697 | 3,519 | 2,833 | 514 | 97 | 45,414 |
2010-11 | 8,606 | 5,344 | 5,155 | 5,137 | 6,346 | 4,743 | 3,932 | 3,664 | 2,915 | 587 | 106 | 46,535 |
2011-12 | 8,851 | 5,284 | 5,292 | 4,969 | 6,335 | 4,843 | 3,971 | 3,592 | 2,900 | 600 | 123 | 46,760 |
2012-13 | 8,578 | 4,990 | 4,967 | 4,625 | 5,873 | 4,660 | 4,015 | 3,434 | 2,884 | 624 | 133 | 44,783 |
2013-14 | 9,316 | 5,027 | 5,060 | 4,815 | 5,722 | 4,872 | 3,801 | 3,297 | 2,660 | 677 | 108 | 45,355 |
Source: Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Notes:
1. An 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. 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 National Health Service 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. HES figures includes 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.