COVID-19 within Shropshire hospitals in 2020 and 2021

​FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3211

You asked

In relation to the following FOI request, please answer the following;

1) Why can you not provided statistics for ALL hospitals per se in the area requested?

2) Why the division between NHS Trust and "Hopsitals" - please define?

3) How can you provided accurate statistic when you are elliminatinng NHS TRUST Hopsital?

4) According to my research the following are the only hospitals in shropshire, appart from one or two that are private the rest are NHS Trusts:

• Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust

• Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust

Therefore, please can you answer the following:

1) Supply the name of the office/department that provides your office with statistics for causes of death from each hospital in England and Wales for 2020 and 2021.

2) Supply the statistics for the number of death figures for in-patients who tested positive and died primarily of COVID-19 within Shropshire hospitals for 2020.

3) Supply the statistics for the number of death figures for in-patients who tested positive and died primarily of COVID-19 within Shropshire hospitals for 2021.

4) Supply the statistics for the number of Medical Death Certificates issued for in-patients who tested positive and died primarily of COVID-19 within Shropshire hospitals in 2020.

5) Supply the statistics for the number of Medical Death Certificates issued for in-patients who tested positive and died primarily of COVID-19 within Shropshire hospitals in 2021.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry regarding deaths by specific place of occurrence.

We can provide statistics on all hospitals and these are provided weekly in our Death registrations and occurrences by local authority and health board.

There is no division between NHS Trust and private hospitals in our statistics. We currently publish deaths by place of occurrence at Local Authority level in the publication above. However, it was advised that if COVID-19 deaths by place occurrence by NHS Trust geography are required, this would need to be produced as a custom data request and under the FOI Act there is no obligation for a Public Authority to create data. We can provide this under our bespoke data request route, for which there is a charge and release will be subject to legal frameworks and disclosure control.

Who supplies ONS mortality data?

As advised in the previous FOI, ONS data is supplied by the General Registry Office using information taken from the death registration process. It is supplied to us by the Registration Online System (RON). We do not receive mortality data from NHS Trusts boards in England or Wales.

COVID-19 deaths involving patients in hospital with a positive COVID-19 test by place of occurrence

The underlying cause of death is the health condition or event that started the train of events leading to death and is worked out according to rules from the World Health Organisation (WHO). You can read in detail about the coding of causes of death and identifying the underlying cause in the ONS User guide to mortality statistics and the WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) instruction manual.

If a test has been performed and COVID-19 is found to be an underlying cause or contributory cause of these, these deaths are recorded using ICD-10 code U07.1. If COVID-19 is suspected but no test has confirmed this, these COVID-19 deaths are recorded using ICD-10 code U07.2 as both underlying cause and contributory mention.

We do not hold information on if the deceased was an inpatient in hospital at the time of death, as this is not recorded on the death certificate. We only hold information about if their place of death has been recorded as a hospital.

However, we can provide bespoke analysis showing a breakdown down of COVID-19 by suspected or confirmed test result by place of occurrence. Information on deaths by specific ICD-10 code and place of occurrence, along with other special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate).

Such enquiries would fall outside of the Freedom of Information regime and should be made to: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.

COVID-19 deaths recorded on MCCD in Shropshire Hospitals

ONS mortality data is taken from information supplied on the death certificate. We do not receive the MCCD issued by the medical practitioner certifying the death. We receive the information via the General Registry Office who use information supplied on the MCCD.

NHS Digital may be better placed to answer your enquiry as they do provide statistics by hospital. Statistics » COVID-19 Weekly Total Deaths Archive (england.nhs.uk). They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.

However, as previously explained we do publish deaths involving COVID-19 deaths by place of occurrence (home, care home, hospital, hospice and other communal establishment such as prisons). A death involving COVID-19 is where COVID-19 is either the underlying cause of death or contributory mention and these are published weekly in our Death registrations and occurrences by local authority and health board publication. This output is updated every Tuesday.

From 2 January 2020 to 1 January 2021, there were 208 COVID-19 deaths registered in hospitals in the Shropshire Local Authority Area.

In 2021, there have been 211 COVID-19 deaths registered in Shropshire Local authority hospitals up to the 26 November 2021. This is the latest data available.