Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data the Government holds on the (a) number and distribution of stomas across the UK and (b) type of stoma and patient need; and what those figures and details are for the North East.

There are three main types of stoma related to the digestive and urinary system: colostomy, ileostomy, and urostomy.

The following table shows a count of completed surgical procedures for colostomy, ileostomy and urostomy undertaken within all National Health Service-funded hospital providers in England from 2017/18 to 2020/21. This does not represent a count of people, as the same person could have the same procedure on more than one occasion.

2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21

Colostomy 593 547 498 418

Ileostomy 563 498 472 451

Urostomy 2,013 1,856 1,784 1,020

Total 3,169 2,901 2,754 1,889

Source: NHS Digital, Hospital Episode Statistics

Some stomas are temporary and can be reversed. This data shows the total numbers that were introduced across the period. However, some of these may subsequently have been reversed. Data at a sub-national level has disclosure controls applied to protect patient confidentiality.