PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Parkinson's Disease (23 March 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many finished hospital episodes with a primary diagnosis of Parkinson's disease there were in England in each of the last five years.

Asked by:
Alison McGovern (Labour)

The following table provides a count of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) where the primary diagnosis was Parkinson's disease, for the years 2009-10 to 2013-14.

These figures do not represent the number of different patients as the same person may have had more than one episode of care within any given time period.

Year	FCEs
2009-10	10,847
2010-11	11,029
2011-12	10,685
2012-13	11,189
2013-14	11,246

Notes:

1. A finished consultant episode (FCE) is a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FCEs are counted against the year in which they end. Figures do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay in hospital or in different stays in the same year.

2. The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and 7 prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital.

3. HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, apparent reductions in activity may be due to a number of procedures which may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and so no longer include in admitted patient HES data. Conversely, apparent increases in activity may be due to improved recording of diagnosis or procedure information. HES figures includes activity ending in the year in question and run from April to March, e.g. 2012-13 includes activity ending between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013.

Source: Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Answered by:
Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat)
26 March 2015