§ Audrey WiseTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 14 February 2000,Official Report, column 387W, what attempts his Department has made to link data from the birth registration system with the data from the Hospital Episode Statistics in order to provide data of the type requested. [113094]
§ Yvette CooperDiscussions are currently taking place between officials from the Department and the Office for National Statistics and a pilot study has been proposed to investigate the feasibility of linking data from the Office for National Statistics birth registration records to Hospital Episode Statistics birth records.
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§ Audrey WiseTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 14 February 2000,Official Report, column 387W, what are the estimated numbers of records in the Hospital Episode Statistics for 1997–98 which relate to a delivery of a baby, the numbers of these which have maternity tails and the numbers of maternity tails which contain the data required; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that trusts which do not submit complete maternity data do so in the future. [113095]
§ Yvette CooperThere are an estimated 601,000 National Health Service hospital delivery records in Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) for 1997–98, of which some 40,000 are thought to be duplicate records. By definition all HES delivery records have a tail; about 351,000 of the tails contain a valid method of delivery.
It is the responsibility of NHS trusts to ensure that HES data are accurate and complete. To encourage submission of complete and accurate data, the Department is to publish later this year a National Data Quality Indicator, which will include a component to address the coverage of maternity data and, where maternity data are provided, their quality will also be assessed.