Provisional figures cast new light on work patterns of NHS maternity units

More mothers are discharged after childbirth on Christmas Eve than on any other day of the year in NHS Hospitals in England, provisional figures from The NHS Information Centre (The NHS IC) show today.

Analysis of provisional NHS hospital activity between October 2008 and September 2009 shows just under 2,270 women had their episode of care end on December 24. The episode end date is typically the day they get discharged.

The provisional figures come from a new special topic about NHS deliveries, produced as part of the monthly publication; Provisional Monthly Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care.

Provisionally, the days of the year on which the highest number of women had their episode of care end following childbirth were:

  1. December 24 (2,266)
  2. September 25 (2,031)
  3. October 16 (2,006)

While the days of the year on which the lowest number of women had their episode of care end following childbirth were:

  1. December 26 (1,349)
  2. December 28 (1,361)
  3. December 27 (1,362)

The report can be viewed at www.hesonline.nhs.uk

Regional information is available from this report on request, but should be treated with caution due to the data being provisional.

ENDS

Notes to editors

  1. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care (The NHS IC) is England's authoritative, central, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researcher, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS IC also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
  2. Delivery episodes refer to the episodes of hospital care in which the mother gives birth. This is not the same as a count of births as a mother may give birth to more than one baby within a delivery episode (eg the birth of twins would be one delivery episode but two births).
  3. The figures supplied relate to the date that the delivery episode finishes. On rare occasions a mother may not leave the hospital on this date, but be transferred to another consultant for additional care.
  4. Provisional Monthly HES for Admitted Patient Care is published monthly to provide up-to-date information and demonstrate approximate trends. Information is provisional, has not been subject to final checks and revisions ahead of annual publication and can be subject to change. This is particularly true of the latest month (October 2009). Previous provisional data has been slightly lower than the final data published in annual publications.
  5. HES provisional monthly data can be used for high level, aggregate analysis demonstrating approximate trends in activity. Lower level analysis should be approached with caution as not all activity will be correctly processed until the final annual data is produced.
  6. For media enquires please call 0845 257 6990 or contact: