The number of bed days for finished consultant episodes with a cause code of assault by sharp object between 2006-07 and 2011-12 is shown in the table. We have also supplied the number of day case episodes with a cause code of assault by sharp object as these are not included in the calculation of bed days. This data is available as part of the Health and Social Care Information Centre's admitted patient care annual publications. It should be noted that the vast majority of people who attend hospital due to assault by a sharp object (including knives), are treated without being admitted to hospital—there is no accurate data on the number of people who attend hospital for treatment for this type of assault, but are not admitted. Countof bed days1 for finished consultantepisodes2 (FCEs) and total day caseepisodes3 with a cause code of assault bysharp object4 for 2006-07 to2011-125 Activityin English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in theindependentsector Daycases FCEbeddays 2006-07 53 12,098 2007-08 80 9,901 2008-09 103 9,229 2009-10 99 8,741 2010-11 125 9,169 2011-12 127 7,792 1FCE beddays: Thisis the sum of the episode duration for all episodes that ended withinthe financial year. This field does not include bed days where theepisode was unfinished at the end of the financial year. This field isdifferent to the ‘Bed days’ field used in publicationsprior to 2008-09 which included an estimation of bed days fromunfinishedepisodes. 2Finished Consultant Episode(FCE): Afinished consultant episode (FCE) is a continuous period of admittedpatient care under one consultant within one health care provider. FCEsare counted against the year in which they end. Figures do notrepresent the number of different patients, as a person may have morethan one episode of care within the same stay in hospital or indifferent stays in the sameyear. 3Day caseepisodes Thecount of FCEs relating to day cases. Day cases are in-patients who havebeen admitted for treatment just for the day. They are therefore alwayssingle episode spells with a duration of zero days. The intention isfor treatment to be concluded in one day. If, unexpectedly, the patientis kept overnight, it must be re-classed as an ordinaryadmission. 4Causecode Asupplementary code that indicates the nature of any external cause ofinjury, poisoning or other adverse effects. Only the first externalcause code which is coded within the episode is counted in HospitalEpisodeStatistics. X99:Assault by sharpobject 5Assessing growth through time(In-patients): HESfigures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures overtime need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in dataquality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements incoverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) andchanges in NHS practice. For example, changes in activity may be due tochanges in the provision ofcare. Source: HospitalEpisode Statistics (HES), Health and SocialCare