Allergic reactions put people in hospital in Birmingham more than 900 times last year.

There were 930 finished admission episodes (FAEs) with a primary diagnosis of allergies at hospitals in Birmingham in 2017/18, compared to 838 in 2011/12.

However, the number of FAEs was down year-on-year from 965 in 2016/17.

An FAE is the first period of care under a specific consultant for a patient admitted to hospital. One patient can be responsible for more than one FAE during a year.

In 275 of the 930 cases in 2017/18, the allergic patient was suffering from anaphylactic shock when they were taken into hospital.

University Hospitals Birmingham has seen FAEs with a primary diagnosis of allergies more than double from 34 in 2011/12 to 95 in 2017/18, while at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Trust they were up from 47 to 90.

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Sandwell and West Birmingham had the highest rate of FAEs due to allergies, with 46.4 per 10,000 FAEs in 2017/18, 2.7 times the England rate of 17 per 10,000 FAEs.

Across England, there were 28,177 FAEs due to allergies in 2017/18.

That was up by 52.5% compared to 18,471 in 2011/12, and the highest number in at least seven years.

The number rose by 4.8% in a year, from 26,889 in 2016/17.

In 2017/18, 17.0 admissions in every 10,000 were due to allergies, up from 12.3 per 10,000 in 2011/12.

Some 4,836 of the 28,177 admissions in 2017/18 involved a patient in anaphylactic shock, up 29% from 3,735 in 2011/12.

The figures, from NHS Digital, cover a number of diagnoses.

These include food allergies, allergies triggered by contact with skin, and allergic reactions related to asthma, gastroenteritis, colitis and other diseases.

NHS Digital warned that the apparent increase might be partly due to better diagnosis and recording of allergies.