Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many cases of sepsis there were in each region of England in each of the last five years.

Data are not collected in the format requested. Cases of sepsis can only be identified where a hospital admission occurred; therefore collected figures exclude cases treated without the patient being admitted to hospital. A finished admission episode (FAE) is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.

Data on finished admission episodes with a primary or secondary diagnosis of sepsis by government office region of residence years 2012-13 to 2016-17 is shown in the table below.

Sepsis is a devastating condition that we need to get better at spotting across the National Health Service. By raising awareness and improving clinical practice we will save lives in the fight against this horrible illness. Better awareness has led to more cases of sepsis being detected across all age groups. We estimate that our cross system efforts since 2015 have saved over 1,000 lives but we know there is more to do and this is why a new action plan was launched in September 2017 to ensure the NHS is on the highest possible alert to tackle this silent killer.

Notes:

1. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital. Refer to the footnotes when interpreting the data.
2. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes.
3. The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (from 2007-08) diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital.
4. As well as the primary diagnosis, there are up to 19 (from 2007-08) secondary diagnosis fields in HES that show other diagnoses relevant to the episode of care.
5. The following ICD-10 coding has been used to define sepsis:

A02.1 Salmonella sepsis

A20.7 Septicaemic plague

A21.7 Generalized tularaemia

A22.7 Anthrax sepsis

A26.7 Erysipelothrix sepsis

A28.0 Pasteurellosis

A28.2 Extraintestinal yersiniosis

A32.7 Listerial sepsis

A39.2 Acute meningococcaemia

A39.3 Chronic meningococcaemia

A39.4 Meningococcaemia, unspecified

A40.- Streptococcal sepsis

A41.- Other sepsis

A42.7 Actinomycotic sepsis

B37.7 Candidal sepsis

O85.X Puerperal sepsis

P36.- Bacterial sepsis of newborn

The following pair of codes is a dagger/asterisk code pair (D and A) which must be present together:

A39.1 Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome

E35.1 Disorders of adrenal glands in diseases classified elsewhere

6. The Government Office Region of residence contains a code that defines the Government Office Region of residence of the patient. It is derived from the patient's postcode.
7. HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, apparent reductions in activity may be due to a number of procedures which may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and so no longer include in admitted patient HES data. Conversely, apparent increases in activity may be due to improved recording of diagnosis or procedure information. It should be noted that HES include activity ending in the year in question and run from April to March, e.g. 2012-13 includes activity ending between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013.