This dataset presents the age-standardised rate of emergency hospital admissions for myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as heart attacks. It provides a measure of the acute burden of cardiovascular disease and helps assess the effectiveness of preventative care and early intervention strategies in reducing severe cardiac events.
Rationale
Reducing emergency admissions for myocardial infarction is a key objective in cardiovascular health improvement. High admission rates may reflect poor management of risk factors such as hypertension, smoking, and high cholesterol, or delays in accessing timely care. Monitoring this indicator supports targeted interventions and resource planning to reduce avoidable cardiac emergencies.
Numerator
The numerator includes emergency hospital admissions where the primary diagnosis is myocardial infarction, identified using ICD-10 codes I21 and I22. Admissions are included if they meet specific criteria: admission method codes ('21', '22', '23', '24', '25', '28', '2A', '2B', '2C', '2D') and patient classification as 'ordinary' (1 or 2). Data are sourced from the Secondary Uses Service (SUS).
Denominator
The denominator is the expected number of admissions, calculated by applying England’s age-specific rates to the local registered population. Population estimates are based on the 2021 Census. Due to disclosure control, some values have not been published.
Caveats
NHS Digital has identified a data quality issue affecting Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data for Nottingham University Hospitals Trust during the 2016–2017 financial year. Over 30% of records lacked valid geographic information, which may affect data completeness. Additionally, some values have not been published due to disclosure control.
External References
Fingertips Public Health Profiles – Myocardial Infarction Admissions
Localities Explained
This dataset contains data based on either the resident locality or registered locality of the patient, a distinction is made between resident locality and registered locality populations:
- Resident Locality refers to individuals who live within the defined geographic boundaries of the locality. These boundaries are aligned with official administrative areas such as wards and Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs).
- Registered Locality refers to individuals who are registered with GP practices that are assigned to a locality based on the Primary Care Network (PCN) they belong to. These assignments are approximate—PCNs are mapped to a locality based on the location of most of their GP surgeries. As a result, locality-registered patients may live outside the locality, sometimes even in different towns or cities.
This distinction is important because some health indicators are only available at GP practice level, without information on where patients actually reside. In such cases, data is attributed to the locality based on GP registration, not residential address.
Click here to explore more from the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Partnerships Outcome Framework.
Emergency admissions for myocardial infarction - ICP Outcomes Framework - Resident Locality