Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have had spinal operations in the West Midlands in each of the last seven years.

Information is not held in the format requested. The available data from Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) dataset for the years 2010-11 through to 2016-17 is shown in the table below and provides a count of finished admission episodes¹ (FAEs) with a main or secondary spinal procedure², for the West Midlands Government Office Region. Figures do not represent the number of individual patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care in the same year.

Source: HES, NHS Digital

Notes:

¹A FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.

²The first recorded procedure or intervention in each episode, usually the most resource intensive procedure or intervention performed during the episode. It is appropriate to use main procedure when looking at admission details, (e.g. time waited), but a more complete count of episodes with a particular procedure is obtained by looking at the main and the secondary procedures. The first recorded procedure or intervention in each episode, usually the most resource intensive procedure or intervention performed during the episode. It is appropriate to use main procedure when looking at admission details, (e.g. time waited), but a more complete count of episodes with a particular procedure is obtained by looking at the main and the secondary procedures.