§ Sir Michael McNair-WilsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many persons died as a result of being given anaesthetics before operations for each of the last five years; and what percentage they constituted of those anaesthetised during that period.
§ Mr. FreemanInformation is not available in the exact form requested since of over 3 million cases operated on in National Health Service hospitals in England each year, a very small number, which cannot be readily identified, will not involve any form of anaesthetic. Information about the number of deaths possibly associated with anaesthesia is given in the table:
Categories of deaths coded under the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) ninth revision E855.1 E855.2 E876.3 E938 1984 2 0 0 3 1985 3 0 3 3 1986 0 2 2 1 1987 0 4 0 0 1988 1 1 2 1 Source: OPCS death registrations. E855.1. Accidental poisonings by other drugs acting upon the central and autonomic systems: includes either, gaseous anaesthetics, intravenous anaesthetics, halogenated hydrocarbon derivatives, thiobarbiturates. E855.2. As above for local anaesthetics; includes cocaine, lidocaine, procaine and tetrocaine. E876.3. Cases of misadventure during medical care. E938. Other central nervous system depressants. Correct drug properly administered, but adverse reaction to it.