PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Ophthalmology: Accident and Emergency Departments (6 November 2017)

A count of unplanned accident and emergency (A&E) attendances¹ that resulted in a hospital admission², for primary diagnosis of 'ophthalmological conditions'³, by month, 2010-11 and 2016-17⁴ is shown in the table below.

This is a count of hospital attendances resulting in admissions, not individual patients as the same person may have been admitted into a National Health Service hospital on more than one occasion.

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital

Notes:

The following attendance category codes identify unplanned A&E attendances:

1 = First Accident and Emergency attendance
3 = Follow-up Accident and Emergency attendance - unplanned
9 = Not known

2 - Attendance disposal 01 = Admitted to hospital bed / become a lodged patient of the same health care provider.

3 - A&E Diagnosis - Note that the recording of the diagnosis field within the A&E data set is not mandatory. It is not known to what extent changes over time are as a result of improvements in recording practice.

36 = Ophthalmological conditions

4 - HES figures are available from 2007-08 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage and changes in NHS practice. For example, changes in activity may be due to changes in the provision of care

Note that HES include activity ending in the year in question and run from April to March, e.g. 2012-13 includes activity occurring between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013.