Notes:

1. Activity in English national health service hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.

2. A finished admission episode is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Finished admission episodes are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. However, admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.

3. In Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data cannot be filtered using Merseyside or Southport constituencies as the PQ requests; consequently data is provided using PCTs of residences that approximate to required areas.

Merseyside is made-up of the following PCTs: Wirral PCT, Sefton PCT, Halton and St. Helens PCT, Liverpool and Knowsley PCT (or their equivalents in 2005-06 and 2004-05). Southport falls under Sefton PCT of Residence (or its equivalent in 2005-06 and 2004-05).

Owing to the fact that in July 2006, the NHS reorganised PCTs in England from 303 PCTs into 152, data from 2006-07 onwards are not directly comparable with previous years.

Data for the years 2005-06 and 2004-05 have been presented using the equivalent PCTs to the ones listed above. These are as follows: Sefton PCT = (Southport and Formby PCT, South Sefton PCT), Wirral PCT = (Birkenhead and Wallasey PCT, Bebington and West Wirral PCT), Liverpool PCT = (North Liverpool PCT, Central Liverpool PCT, South Liverpool PCT) and, Halton and St. Helens PCT = (St. Helens PCT, Halton PCT).

4. To protect patient confidentiality, figures between 1 and 5 have been suppressed and replaced with “*” (an asterisk). Where it was possible to identify numbers from the total due to a single suppressed number in a row or column, an additional number (the next smallest) has been suppressed.

5. HES are compiled from data sent by over 300 NHS trusts and PCTs in England. Data are also received from a number of independent sector organisations for activity commissioned by the English NHS. 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.

6. HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. The quality and coverage of the data have improved over time. These improvements in information submitted by the NHS have been particularly marked in the earlier years and need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. Some of the increase in figures for later years (particularly 2006-07 onwards) may be due to the improvement in the coverage of independent sector activity. Changes in NHS practice also need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. For example, a number of procedures may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and may no longer be accounted for in the HES data. This may account for any reductions in activity over time.

Source:

HES; Outpatients, The Information Centre for health and social care.