Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average (a) length and (b) cost to the public purse was of hospitals admissions owing to a case of pneumococcal disease in the last 12 months.

The Department does not hold the data in the format requested. There are two pneumococcal diseases listed with ICD – 10 codes: pneumococcal meningitis and pneumococcal arthritis.

The following table shows the estimated average unit cost for healthcare resource groups (HRG) roots that would include the above pneumococcal diseases (England 2016-17).

Reference costs for acute care are collected by HRG, which are standard groupings of clinically similar treatments which use common levels of healthcare resource.

Source: NHS Improvement Reference Costs

Pneumococcal meningitis could be grouped to the following HRG root:

- Cerebrovascular Accident, Nervous System Infections or Encephalopathy;

- Paediatric Febrile Neutropenia with Malignancy; and

- Paediatric Major Infections.

Pneumococcal arthritis and polyarthritis could be grouped to the following HRG root:

- Infections of Bones or Joints;

- Paediatric Febrile Neutropenia with Malignancy; and

- Paediatric Major Infections.

A number of other diseases and treatments can be grouped to these HRG roots, so it is not possible to derive an average unit cost for pneumococcal diseases.

The following table shows the number of finished admission episodes and mean duration for pneumococcal diseases:

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital

Notes:

1. FAEs

A FAE is the first period of inpatient 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 inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.

2. Primary diagnosis

The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and seven prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital.

3. Pneumococcal disease

A40.3 Sepsis due to Streptococcus pneumoniae.

G00.1 Pneumococcal meningitis.

J13.X Pneumonia due to Streptococcus pneumoniae.

M00.1 Pneumococcal arthritis and polyarthritis.

B95.3 Streptococcus pneumoniae as the cause of diseases classified to other chapters.

B95.3 is a supplementary code and would only be found in a secondary position. It indicates Streptococcus pneumoniae as the cause of another disease classified to another chapter within ICD-10.