Home Accident Mortality and Morbidity Data
Mortality Data
The only data available is published in Mortality Statistics, Injury and Poisoning, DH4. Deaths in homes and community establishments can be divided into broad categories such as fire, falls and electrocutions, but detail of cause is restricted to ICD 10 codes. There is no information available regarding the activity leading to the accidental deaths.
More detailed statistics are available from the Registrars General in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Morbidity Data
Wales
The All Wales Injury Surveillance System (AWISS) continues to develop. An agreement by the Welsh Assembly Government that all hospitals in Wales should submit data to AWISS should give a more complete picture.
Northern Ireland
In line with the NI Home Accident Prevention Strategy, a minimum data set has been agreed and is being collected in some hospitals, including the four largest in Belfast.
England
The standardisation of injury data across England is improving. An electronic patient record system (Connecting for Health) is being developed. Each NHS number will have a complete record of GP and hospital episodes. A&E attendances will be recorded on this but at present it is only planned to collect clinical data.
RoSPA will lobby for a “cause of injury” category to be included in the record. The system is planned to go live in 2015.
In the meantime, the Health Observatories are the best source of injury data.
There may be some A&E data available from Observatories and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), which records hospital inpatient episodes, should also be obtainable. No causal data is available except in some very small-scale studies. The SW Observatory is taking the lead.
During 2008, RoSPA, ESC and Intertek commissioned research into the feasibility of replacing the Home and Leisure Accident Surveillance Systems (HASS/LASS). The outcome from this research is freely available here.
Coroner’s data
There are plans to collect Coroner’s data electronically in the future but a requirement for medical confidentiality could make this unobtainable to anyone outside the health service.
Share this page: