Prescription Drugs

(asked on 25th September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) hospital admissions and (b) deaths related to (i) benzodiazepines, (ii) z drugs and (iii) antidepressants were recorded in the last year.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 13th October 2020

Information on hospital admissions and deaths in hospital settings only related to benzodiazepines and antidepressants is shown in the following tables. We are unable to provide data for Z drugs in the format requested. It should be noted that this is not a count of people, as an individual may have more than one admission in any given period.

The following table shows a count of finished admission episodes (FAEs) in 2019/20 with primary diagnosis of benzodiazepines and antidepressants and a count of FAEs in 2019/20 with any diagnosis of benzodiazepines and antidepressants. Activity in English National Service hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.

Financial year

Primary diagnosis - benzodiazepines

Primary diagnosis - antidepressants

All diagnosis - benzodiazepines

All diagnosis - antidepressants

2019/20

6,454

14,898

14,402

29,199

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital

The following table shows a count of finished discharge episodes in 2019/20 with primary diagnosis of benzodiazepines and antidepressants who passed away. Activity in English NHS hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.

Financial year

Primary diagnosis - benzodiazepines

Primary diagnosis - antidepressants

2019/20

9

16

Source: HES, NHS Digital

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