Information is not collected on the number of gun shot and knife wound injuries treated in hospitals.
Information is available, however, on patients who were actually admitted to hospital for gun shot and knife injuries (these figures do not include patients who were treated in accident and emergency departments for gun shot/knife injuries and not admitted). Those cause codes that appear relevant to the question are presented in the table as follows.
2005-06 2004-05 2003-04 2002-03 2001-02 W32 Handgun discharge 44 38 68 68 68 W33 Rifle shotgun and larger firearm discharge 73 68 95 71 100 X72 Intentional self-harm by handgun discharge 10 15 7 11 12 X73 Intent self-harm by rifle shotgun and larger firearm discharge 17 7 6 7 14 X93 Assault by handgun discharge 44 37 49 47 42 X94 Assault by rifle shotgun and larger firearm discharge 51 51 50 56 64 Y22 Handgun discharge undetermined intent 9 9 6 9 7 Y23 Rifle shotgun and larger firearm discharge undetermined intent 11 7 19 17 17 Total 259 232 300 286 324 W26 Contact with knife sword or dagger 5,321 4,939 4,872 4,842 4,672 Notes: Finished admission episodes A finished admission episode is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. Cause code The cause code is a supplementary code that indicates the nature of any external cause of injury, poisoning or other adverse effects. Ungrossed data Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (i.e. the data are ungrossed). Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The Information Centre for health and social care.