Update 2 March 2023: Following the merger of NHS Digital and NHS England on 1st February 2023 we are reviewing the future presentation of the NHS Outcomes Framework indicators. As part of this review, the annual publication which was due to be released in March 2023 has been delayed. Further announcements about this dataset will be made on this page in due course.
This indicator measures the number of emergency admissions to hospital of children with selected types of lower respiratory tract infections (bronchiolitis, bronchopneumonia and pneumonia).
This indicator is concerned with how successfully the NHS manages to reduce avoidable emergency admissions for children with lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs).
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began to have an impact on Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data late in the 2019/20 financial year, which continued into the 2020/21 financial year. This means we are seeing different patterns in the submitted data, for example, fewer patients being admitted to hospital, and therefore statistics which contain data from this period should be interpreted with care.
Legacy unique identifier: P01762