Obesity: Hospitals

(asked on 15th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how data on hospital admissions classified as obesity-related is recorded in NHS statistics.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 27th May 2020

Hospital Episodes Statistics use World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases v.10 (ICD-10). Within ICD-10 obesity is assigned as code E66 and this will be recorded on any episode of care where a clinical diagnosis of obesity has been made.

NHS Digital states that obesity codes may be used but not interpreted by the coder and only be coded when a diagnosis of obesity is recorded in the medical record. This means that where Body Mass Index has been recorded in the medical record, it must not be used to assign a E66 code. A clinical coder must always refer to the responsible consultant to confirm the clinical significance of a test result.

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