Classification of Diseases and Injuries

Abstract

ASKED by the Ministry of Health to advise on a system for collecting and recording statistics of patients admitted to hospital, the Medical Research Council appointed a Committee on Hospital Morbidity Statistics, which has now issued "A Provisional Classification of Diseases and Injuries for Use in Compiling Morbidity Statistics" (Med. Res. Council, Special Report Series, No. 248. H.M. Stationery Office, 1944. 3s. net). The classification here recommended has been adopted by the Ministry of Health for the classification of all Emergency Medical Service records, and the Ministry of Pensions is also using it. It will also be used in the Regional Bureaux of Health and Sickness records which the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust is establishing in some areas. It is comparable with the International List of Causes of Death and the Diagnosis Code of the United States Public Health Service, the code numbers of both of which are included. It is also comparable with the Diagnosis Codes of the Royal Navy, Army and R.A.F. Medical Services. The coding system has been planned for use with mechanical sorting, but may be used equally well with manual filing. It is not suggested that it should replace the Standard Nomenclature of Disease of the American Medical Association.