Table 4.12.12
FCE/HOSPITAL SPELL RATIOS, GENERAL &
ACUTE, BY REGIONAL OFFICE, NHS HOSPITALS, ENGLAND, 1995-96—1996-97
| 1995-96 | 1996-97 (Provisional and ungrossed)
|
| Northern & Yorkshire | 1.053
| 1.065 |
| Trent | 1.060 | 1.068
|
| Anglia & Oxford | 1.087
| 1.107 |
| North Thames | 1.064 | 1.066
|
| South Thames | 1.064 | 1.070
|
| South & West | 1.104 |
1.151 |
| West Midlands | 1.068 | 1.078
|
| North & West | 1.068 |
1.086 |
| England | 1.070 | 1.086
|
| |
|
8. There will always be more FCEs than hospital spells
because a proportion of patients will be transferred from the
care of one consultant to another in the course of their hospital
stay to receive different treatment. The extent of transfers may
vary between providers or over time for a number of reasons. In
particular:
(a) the increasing proportion of elderly treated in hospital,
who are more likely to need treatment by more than one consultant;
(b) medical advance means that the NHS can provide more
treatment when a patient is admitted to hospital and best clinical
practice is changing the pattern of treatment to one of increased
specialisation with more consultants involved;
(c) improved arrangements for handling emergency admissions
under the care of an A & E consultant with subsequent transfer
to the appropriate consultant in another specialty.
9. Within the overall figures there are a small number
of provider units which have a significantly higher FCEs/spells
ratio than the national figure. Providers with a ratio greater
than 1.15 and with more than 10,000 FCEs are listed in the table
below. The variation in ratio from provider to provider may be
quite legitimate and may be due to a number of factors, including
balance of services, case mix, clinical policy, and data quality.
In some cases, higher ratios are due to a failure to code episodes
according to nationally agreed definitions.
|
