An estimated 460,000 hospital admissions in 2010/11, among people aged 35 and over, were due to smoking. This is the equivalent of 1,260 admissions a day – representing one-in- 20 of all admissions to hospital in 2010/11.
‘Statistics on Smoking: England 2012’ presents a broad range of information on health issues related to smoking and includes new statistics from the Health and Social Care Information Centre HSCIC’s Hospital Episodes Statistics. They show that in 2010/11, among people aged 35 and over, around 1.5 million hospital admissions had a primary diagnosis of a disease that can be caused by smoking. This number has risen steadily. It is estimated that around 460,000 admissions were due to smoking; which has remained broadly similar since 2006/07. Of these, 126,200 had a primary diagnosis of respiratory diseases (26% of all respiratory disease admissions); 135,400 had a primary diagnosis of circulatory disease (15% of all circulatory disease admissions); 160,300 had a primary diagnosis of cancer (11% of all cancer admissions). Commenting on the figures, HSCIC chief executive Tim Straughan said: “These figures present in stark terms the impact smoking has on people’s individual health and NHS services.”
