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Baby Care Units

Volume 463: debated on Tuesday 24 July 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many babies born in England in each of the last five years required neonatal care in a specialist unit. (150276)

Information is not available in the format requested. However, information is in the following table on the number of finished consultant episodes (FCE) where neonatal care was provided in a specialist unit. This is not equivalent to the number of babies requiring care in a specialist unit. A baby may have had more than one FCE of neonatal care in a specialist unit.

Count of finished consultant episodes where neonatal care was provided in a specialist unit, 2001-02 to 2005-06 NHS hospitals, England

Special care

Level 2 intensive care

Level 1 intensive care

Total episodes

2005-06

General episode

18,598

3,475

4,394

Birth episode

31,936

4,062

6,196

Total

50,534

7,537

10,590

68,661

2004-05

General episode

17,202

2,854

4,020

Birth episode

31,121

4,069

5,480

Total

48,323

6,923

9,500

64,746

2003-04

General episode

18,259

3,160

4,063

Birth episode

28,946

4,400

5,123

Total

47,205

7,560

9,186

63,951

2002-03

General episode

15,062

2,784

3,516

Birth episode

28,884

4,421

5,063

Total

43,946

7,205

8,579

59,730

2001-02

General episode

19,763

2,956

3,962

Birth episode

28,756

4,305

6,099

Total

48,519

7,261

10,061

65,841

Notes: 1. Definitions of neonatal care provided in specialist units. Special care: care given in a special nursery, transitional care ward or postnatal ward, which provides care and treatment exceeding normal routine care. Some aspects of special care can be undertaken by a mother supervised by qualified nursing staff. Special nursing care includes support for and education of the infants parents. 2. Level 2 intensive care: (high dependency intensive care): care given in an intensive or special care nursery, which provides continuous skilled supervision by qualified and specially trained nursing staff who may care for more babies than in level 1 intensive care. Care includes support for the infant's parents. 3. Level 1 intensive care: (maximal intensive care): care given in an intensive or special care nursery, which provides continuous skilled supervision by qualified and specially trained nursing and medical staff. Care includes support for the infant's parents. 4. Definitions of general and birth episodes General episode: A general episode is any episode which is not covered under other episode types. Other episode types include birth episodes, delivery episodes, patients formally detained under the provisions mental health legislation or long term psychiatric patients, other birth events and other delivery events. 5. Birth episode: A birth episode is the hospital episode that commences at birth. If a baby is transferred from another episode or re-admitted to hospital after discharge this new episode will not be classified as a birth episode, regardless of the age of the baby. 6. FCE An FCE is defined as a period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Please note that the figures do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the year. 7. Data quality Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are compiled from data sent by over 300 national health service trusts and primary care trusts in England. The Information Centre for Health And Social Care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. 8. Ungrossed data Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (i.e. the data are ungrossed). Source: HES, The Information Centre for health and social care.