Written question WQ93432
- Asked by
- Siân GwenllianPlaid
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Secretary for Health, Social Care and Welsh Language
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 14 days
Question
Further to WQ93262 and the confirmation therein that data on miscarriages is not collected centrally for the UK, is the Cabinet Secretary aware of any other government in the UK collecting this data for their countries?
Answer
Answered by Cabinet Secretary for Health, Social Care and Welsh Language
NHS England reported on the number of miscarriages which resulted in a hospital stay each year from 1997-98 to 2022-23 as part of their NHS Maternity Statistics. These statistics only capture those who attended a hospital for treatment of miscarriage and do not capture those who did not attend a hospital, were treated by their GP or in the community or miscarried in the very early stages of pregnancy.
For Northern Ireland, similarly, data are only available where a person was admitted to hospital due to miscarriage. Theis data can be found as part of their: ‘Acute episode based activity’ publication.
For Scotland, data are available up until 2016 for instances where a miscarriage was treated in hospital as an inpatient or day case. These statistics were stopped after 2016 due to data quality concerns relating to the changing nature of the management of miscarriages. Public Health Scotland is working to improve knowledge of miscarriages in Scotland.