Heart attack patients: emergency hospital admissions drop by a quarter while death rate nearly halves in a decade
Hospitals in England have seen the annual number of emergency admissions for heart attacks among patients aged 35 to 74 drop by more than a quarter in a decade and the death rate nearly halve.
Emergency admissions fell from 42,400 in 2000/01 to 30,600 in 2009/10, NHS Information Centre figures show.
During the same period the death rate for within 30 days of an emergency admission for heart attack almost halved; dropping from one in 11 to one in 20.
Today’s report; Hospital Episode Statistics: Deaths within 30 days of a hospital procedure or of an emergency admission to hospital - Financial year 2009/10; presents mortality information on selected conditions and procedures2, to help the NHS monitor potential avoidable deaths following hospital treatment.
As well as the notable changes for heart attacks, the report also shows that while the death rate has reduced for stroke (among all age groups) between 2000/01 and 2009/10, the annual number of emergency admissions has not changed greatly.
In 2009/10 there were 64,300 emergency admissions; a four per cent fall compared to 2000/01 (67,000). During the same period the death rate fell from one in four to one in five
Figures have been standardised to consider factors including the age of the population over time; but not factors like socio-economic status, co-morbidities or severity of illness.
NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: “The majority of admissions to hospital for people suffering a heart attack or stroke are emergency cases. This report focuses on such admissions; providing the NHS and the public with a vital 10 year snapshot of the number of patients treated by our hospitals for such serious conditions and whether they survive or not.”
The report findings can be accessed at: www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/hesdeaths0910
The report data is available on the NHS Information Centre’s Indicator Portal (under the Compendium section on the left hand menu, listed under hospital care/outcomes/deaths) which can be accessed via the report home page.
Notes to editors
- The NHS Information Centre is England’s authoritative, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researchers, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS Information Centre also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
- Trend information is available for all five mortality indicators in today’s report, all of which have had standardisation applied to them. Two indicators relate to procedures; non elective surgery (indirectly standardised by age, sex and procedure (at OPCS4 chapter / selected sub-chapters level, based on eligible procedures)and coronary artery bypass graft (indirectly standardised by age, sex, and method of admission) . Three indicators relate to emergency admissions; stroke (indirectly standardised by age and sex), myocardial infarction (heart attack; indirectly standardised by age, sex and 3 digit primary diagnosis ) and fractured proximal femur (indirectly standardised by age and sex.)
- The following primary diagnosis admission codes apply to the conditions referred to in this press release: Stroke: ICD 10 codes I61-I64. Heart attacks: ICD 10 codes I21-I22 . As a number of filters have been applied (for example, day cases are excluded), admission numbers will not match the figures which appear on www.hesonline.nhs.uk,
- Rounding: Total admissions and total death figures above 1000 have been rounded to the nearest 100, while total death figures outside of hospital (below 1000) have been rounded to the nearest 10. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.
- For media enquiries please call 0845 257 6990 or contact mediaenquiries@ic.nhs.uk