Hospital Admissions Data On-line, 2006-07

Statistics on hospital admissions include data for Wales for the period 2006-07. The latest release updates the statistics previously released on 31 July 2007.

Hospital Admissions Data On-line provides information on hospital activity for Welsh residents and Welsh NHS Trusts.  The information is derived from the Patient Episode Database for Wales (PEDW).  This contains all inpatient and day case activity undertaken in NHS Wales plus data on Welsh residents treated in English Trusts. The various tables include counts of admissions and episodes, and average length lengths of stay. Information is available by type of admission (emergency or elective), patient age, specialty, diagnosis and operative procedure. For the first time, information on median waiting times is included in the tables.

There has been a change in the way figures for day case admissions are counted, and this is explained in a Statistical Article. To indicate the effect of the change, tables for 2005-06 and 2006-07 on the website are shown on both the old and new basis; for future years, the intention is to provide data on the new basis only.

For NHS Trusts in Wales:

• There were around 726,000 hospital admissions in Wales.
• 47 per cent of hospital admissions were emergencies.
• The average length of stay for all patients was 8 days (9 days if admitted as an emergency). Patients in psychiatric specialties stayed on average 68 days, whereas maternity patients stayed on average 2 days.
• 48 per cent of hospital episodes contained an operation (34 per cent of inpatient episodes, 91 per cent of day cases).
• Welsh NHS Trusts admitted 13,000 residents from outside Wales.
• 9 per cent of hospital episodes in Wales related to cancer diagnoses; 20 per cent of these episodes were emergency admissions.
• For hospital episodes which involved a cataract operation, 96 per cent were day cases.
• The median waiting time for patients admitted from the waiting list was 45 days (the median waiting time is the time within which half of patients were admitted following their addition to the waiting list).

For Welsh residents:

• Around 49,000 Welsh residents travelled to England for treatment.

(1) Figures shown here use the new method of counting day case admissions.

Health Solutions Wales Information and Statistics website

Contact

Tel: 029 2082 5033
E-mail: stats.healthinfo@wales.gsi.gov.uk