Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients were admitted via accident and emergency departments with a primary diagnosis of a sprain or ligament injury in each month of the financial years (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14, (e) 2014-15, (f) 2015-16 and (g) 2016-17.

A count of unplanned accident and emergency (A&E) attendances¹ resulting in an admission² and a primary diagnosis of sprain or ligament injury³, for the financial years between 2010-11 and 2016-17⁴ is displayed in the table below.

This is a count of hospital attendances resulting in admissions, not individual patients as the same person may have been admitted into a National Health Service hospital on more than one occasion.

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital

Notes:

¹The following attendance category codes identify unplanned A&E attendances:

1 = First A&E attendance

3 = Follow-up A&E attendance – unplanned

9 = Not known

²Attendance disposal 01 = Admitted to hospital bed / become a lodged patient of the same health care provider.

³A&E Diagnosis - The recording of the diagnosis field within the A&E data set is not mandatory. It is not known to what extent changes over time are as a result of improvements in recording practice.

06 = Sprain or ligament injury

⁴HES figures are available from 2007-08 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage and changes in NHS practice. For example, changes in activity may be due to changes in the provision of care. Note that HES include activity ending in the year in question and run from April to March, e.g. 2012-13 includes activity occurring between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013.