§ Alistair BurtTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people attended out-patient clinics at spinal injuries units in(a) 1997, (b) 1998, (c) 1999 and (d) 2000. [6752]
§ Jacqui SmithThe information requested is not collected centrally. We do, however, have some data on the incidence of spinal injury consultations for the national health service as a whole, as shown in the table.
Finished consultant episodes (FCEs)1 by main diagnosis NHS hospitals England 1995–96 to 1999–2000 Year Spinal cord injuries1 1995–96 11,578 1996–97 11,490 1997–98 11,433 1998–99 10,900 1999–2000 11,071 An FCE is defined as a period of patient care under one consultant in one health care provider. Notes:
Data in this table are grossed for both coverage and unknown/invalid clinical data, except for 1998–99 and 1999–2000 which are ungrossed.
The figures do not represent the number of patients, as one person may have several episodes within a year.
The main diagnosis is the first of seven diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics data set, and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital.