Information is not collected in the format requested. Information is collected weekly, not monthly. Depending on how the days of the week fall in any given year there can be four or five weekly collections in each month. In December 2008 there were four weekly collections, and in December 2009 five. The following table shows the number of attendances at all types of accident and emergency (A&E) departments in England in December 2008 and December 2009, collected through the weekly collections. However, the figures are not directly comparable due to the difference in the number of data collections within each month. We have provided data for all attendances at A&E departments as we do not collect separate figures for minor injuries units weekly. The data provided are from the Department's weekly SitRep management data which are not validated.
A&E attendances (thousand) Number of weeks of data collected December 2008 1,462.9 4 December 2009 1,819.2 5 Source: Department of Health Weekly SitReps.
The Department is unable to provide data specifically for the Ashford constituency due to low numbers, as numbers between one and five would need suppressing due to the Hospital Episode Statistics protocol. The numbers of finished admission episodes for people bitten or struck by a dog by Kent Primary Care Trust (PCT) for the years 2004-05 to 2008-09 are provided in the following table.
West Kent PCT Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT Medway PCT Total 2008-09 60 61 39 160 2007-08 70 55 23 148 2006-07 54 40 27 121 2005-06 51 34 25 110 2004-05 52 38 18 108 Notes: Kent has been made up of the following PCTs: In 2006-07 to 2008-09: West Kent Eastern and coastal Kent Medway Teaching Prior to 2006-07 West Kent was formerly made up of: Maidstone Weald PCT South West Kent PCT Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley PCT Prior to 2006-07 Eastern and coastal Kent was formerly made up of: Swale PCT Ashford PCT Canterbury and Coastal PCT East Kent Coastal PCT Shepway PCT Prior to 2006-07 Medway Teaching PCT was formerly made up of: Medway PCT It should be noted that the number of FAEs does not represent the number of patients as a patient may have been admitted more than once within a year. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, The NHS Information Centre for health and social care.