Executive summary

For public and private hospitals combined, Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes ranked fifth in the number of separations after Factors influencing health status and contact with health services groups, Diseases of the digestive system, Neoplasms, and Diseases of the circulatory system.

During the period 1 July 2001 to 30 June 2002, there were 409,364 hospital separations with a Principal Diagnosis in the ICD-10-AM range S00-T98 of Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes, which constitutes 6.4% of all hospital injury separations. These cases are considered in two categories; Community injury and Complications of surgical and medical care. Cases that did not fit into these categories for various reasons are excluded (n=12,321; 0.2% of all separations).