Hospitalisations, emergency cases and deaths with Covid-19

Dyddiad y datganiad:
16 August 2022

FOI Reference: FOI/2022/4332

You asked

I am finding it difficult to find the following data either because it doesn't exist or because I am looking in the wrong place or because it isn't even being collected.

For me the most important cuts of the data where Covid is concerned are as follows:

1. The number of people admitted to hospital because of Covid

2. The number of people in hospital where Covid is part of their problem

3. The number of people in hospital who tested positive for Covid

4. The number of people in hospital completely unaffected by Covid

5. The number of people who have become emergency cases in each of the first categories

6. The number of people who have died in hospital in each of the first 3 categories

I can't find this data which is surprising because for me it covers pretty much everything that everyone would want to know. If it exists, could you please tell me where I can find it and if it doesn't could you please explain why it has not been collected and/or published.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

We do publish insights on Hospital data in the Coronavirus COVID-19) latest insights tool which covers England only. We do not hold up-to-date information on hospitalisations. Our data on hospital episodes is obtained from the Hospital Episode Statistics published by NHS Digital with an approximately 3 month delay. We use this data to determine pre-existing conditions and general health of individuals, but not to analyse recent hospitalisations due to COVID-19. This information can be found our Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights page.

We have also published analysis of Coronavirus (COVID-19) hospital admissions by vaccination and pregnancy status, England which uses a main data source of the Office for National Statistics' Public Health Data Asset, which includes 2011 Census records, deaths registrations, and electronic health records for England. The PHDA does not hold Welsh data and therefore we consider this information not held.

More information on this study can be found in the methodology article Coronavirus (COVID-19) hospital admissions by vaccination and pregnancy status, methodology: England.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publish data that could help answer your enquiry. They publish a weekly surveillance report which looks at the impact on hospitalisations, infection, vaccine effectiveness and COVID-19 mortality. The UKHSA weekly surveillance report includes numbers of COVID-19 hospitalisations and numbers of COVID-19 deaths within 28 and 60 days of positive specimen or with COVID-19 reported on death certificate for 4-week periods, by vaccination status and age group, where vaccination status is defined on the date of infection. The report also includes mortality rates by vaccination status, where NIMS (National Immunisation Management System) is used for the denominator. They can be contacted on InformationRights@UKHSA.gov.uk.

For all other information on hospitalisations, NHS Digital would be better placed to answer your enquiry. They can be contacted on enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk or by telephone 0300 303 5678.

Availability of COVID-19 Data

With regards to your comment regarding the availability of COVID-19 data, ONS publish the following mortality analysis:

Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional - All cause and deaths involving COVID-19 in England and Wales by region, and UK headline COVID-19 deaths. This publication is updated every Tuesday.

Death registrations and occurrences by local authority and health board-- All cause and deaths due to COVID-19 by local authority and health board. This publication is updated every Tuesday.

Monthly mortality analysis, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) Provisional death registration data for England and Wales, broken down by sex, age and country. Includes deaths due to coronavirus (COVID-19) and leading causes of death. As part of this publication, we also release.

Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England - Office for National Statistics - Age-standardised mortality rates for deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, broken down by age group. Deaths occurring between 1 January 2021 and 31 May 2022 in England.