Potential years of life lost from causes considered amenable to healthcare (adults)
Some causes of death, e.g. lung cancer, can be treated and as such are amenable to healthcare. The potential years of life lost through health conditions that are considered amenable have fallen by over 25% in both adult men and women in the last decade. In 2013, the potential years of lost life per 100,000 population for male adults saw a small increase, while the decrease continued for females. We will need to view this in the context of subsequent data to assess whether it is a reversal of the trend in males.
Source: ONS mid-year population estimates (based on Census 2011). Annual ONS mortality extract.
Emergency admissions for conditions that should not usually require hospital admission
Some health conditions (such as asthma or flu) can be prevented from getting suddenly worse by better healthcare such as vaccination and changes to lifestyle. In 2013/14, there were just under 2,000 emergency admissions per 100,000 population to hospital for people with such conditions, which marks a 1.5% reduction from 2012/13.
Overall there has been an increase of 4.7% from 2009/10 and over 8% in the past decade in avoidable emergency admissions. The increase in these emergency admissions is most likely to be due to there now being more older people living with several different long-term conditions who experience sudden episodes of unrelated conditions such as urinary tract infections.
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and ONS mid-year population estimates (based on 2011 Census)