Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how his Department measures rates of hospital re-admission.
Data on a number of different hospital readmission indicators is published by NHS Digital on the NHS Digital Indicator Portal is available at:
https://indicators.hscic.gov.uk/webview/
Due to an ongoing methodological review, the latest publication for these indicators includes data up to and including the 2011/12 financial year. A key aspect of the methodological review is to establish a single definition of an emergency readmission. For example, different definitions of the indicator exclude different clinical conditions. The review is ongoing and there are no fixed timescales as to when the next publication of these indicators will take place.