Statistics on admissions for alcohol related illness

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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY I.J. GORST OF ST. CLEMENT

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY, 13th FEBRUARY 2007

Question

Would the Minister inform members –

1. h o w many patientsrequiredadmission to hospital requiring Consultant-input for alcohol-related illness between 2000 and2006 broken down by (i) patients agedunder18years and (ii) patients aged 18 years and over?
2. w h ether all incidents in the Accident andEmergencydepartmentwherealcohol is involved are codedas such, for example, with anassault,is it the wound that gets the code or the alcohol that drove it? Ifso, would hestatehowmany patients who visited the department hadanalcohol-relateddiagnosisineach year between 2000 and 2006 brokendownbythose (i) aged under18years and (ii) those aged over 18 years? Ifincidents are notcoded in this wayis the Minister satisfied that the present procedures are appropriate and, ifso,would he explain why?If not, doeshe propose any changes?

Answer

1. T h e numberofinpatientadmissions to the General Hospital withalcoholrelated illness between the years 2000 to2006broken down bypatients aged under18and patients aged 18yearsandover are displayedin table 1 below -

Table 1

Health and Social Services Inpatient Episodes Related to Alcohol Use 2000 - 2006

T h e figures in the above table have been extracted from the Health and Social Services information

systems using the Scott ish coding system for hospital episodes related to alcohol use.

T h e term related to alcohol use covers a wide range of clinical conditions where alcohol is a major

causative factor and includes the following -

Alcohol intoxication

Alcohol withdrawal

Diseases such as alcoholic cirrhosis, hepatitis and gastritis Mental and behaviour disorders due to alcohol.

It s h o uld be noted that the extraction of data using the Scott ish coding system provides a greater capture of

alcohol related illnesses than the English coding system.

T h e figures will show where alcohol is a primary factor, but may not include admission where alcohol

may be a secondary or tertiary factor.

2. A l l attendees to the Accident and EmergencyDepartment are codedaccordingto the major diagnosise.g. head injury, epileptic fit, and alcohol intoxication etc. but they donot routinely record whetherornot alcohol mayhaveplayed a part in the causeofpatients clinical diagnosis. For example a patient couldbe coded as having a brokenwrist and the fact that this may have been caused by consuming a moderate amountof alcohol would not necessarily berecorded within the codingsystem.

G i v e n the above caveat, please see below table 2 depicting alcohol related attendances as (coded by the

Accident and Emergency system) for the years 2000 – 2006 split into patients under 18 years of age and patients 18 years of age and over:-

T a b l e 2  

Accident and Emergency Department Alcohol Related Attenders

2000 - 2006

A s fa r as the Accident and Emergency coding system is concerned, alcohol related illness covers all

those attendances where alcohol excesses or the word drunk appeared in any field.

As a consequence the figures do/(may) not include attendances where alcohol may be a causative, or contributory factor.

The current system, whilst adequate to ensure satisfactory capture of basic information for audit and operational planning purposes does not allow for detailed analysis of sub factors in the presentation of a wide range of clinical problems.

It is anticipated that some of these aforementioned potential functional deficiencies of the current information systems within Accident and Emergency will be addressed as part of the new Health and Social Services information, communication technology (ICT) project currently underway.  However, it should be noted that despite an increase in functionality of the proposed new ICT system, it will not in all probability capture the level of detail requested by the Deputy in this question.  The detail required could only be accurately determined by a thorough retrospective examination of each patient episode. For information the Accident and Emergency Department manages 40,000 patient episodes per year.