FOI ref: FOI-2024-2103
You asked
I am making a Freedom of Information request for details pertaining to deaths involving multi organ failure, including liver failure, following a paracetamol overdose 48 hours prior to death, from the following years of 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, in the UK.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the production of Mortality statistics for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. For statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland you will need to contact National Records of Scotland and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Centre, respectively.
Causes of death are certified in most cases by a doctor, who records the sequence of medical conditions and relevant events leading to, or contributing to, the death, based on the deceased's healthcare records and other available information, such as laboratory tests or post-mortem investigation. Some deaths are certified by a coroner who determines the causes of death following an inquest, based on all the available evidence. It is unusual for wider contextual factors such as the time of drug ingestion to be recorded on the death certificate, therefore we do not hold that information (ie the 48 hours part of the query).
In terms of the other elements of your query:
For deaths relating to paracetamol overdose, please see our Deaths related to drug poisoning bulletin. This release covers up to 2022; data for 2023 are not yet available because of registration delays as explained within the bulletin.
With regards further breaking down paracetamol deaths by mentions of multi-organ and liver failure on the death certificate, that analysis is not part of the bulletin and has not been previously produced. The requested information would therefore need to be created as a custom output:
Information on deaths involving multi organ failure following paracetamol overdose along with other special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales may be available to order. Please note these services are subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs in line with our charging policy.
Please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk for more information.