New analysis of more than 19 million Accident and Emergency (A&E) attendances in England has been published today by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).
The report covers attendances recorded by major A&E departments, single specialty A&E departments, walk-in centres and minor injury units in 2014/15.
The Hospital Episode Statistics Accident and Emergency Attendances in England 2014/15 report shows, of the 19.6 million attendances recorded:
- Over a third (6.9 million) had a recorded treatment of ‘guidance/advice only’.
- One in five (4.0 million) resulted in an admission to hospital.
- 57.7 per cent (11.3 million) of attendances were discharged with either a GP follow-up or no follow-up required.
The number of recorded attendances at major A&E departments (‘Type 1’) in England has increased by 2.2 per cent from 14.3 million in 2013/14 to 14.6 million in 2014/15.
The report also shows that for all the recorded A&E attendances nationally in 2014/15:
- Nearly one in four patients (4.5 million) arrived by ambulance or helicopter.
- Monday continued to be the most popular day for A&E attendances, with 15.8 per cent of all attendances (3.1 million); there was a fairly even spread of attendances across all other days of the week. The busiest hour of arrival on a Monday was 10am with 230,200 attendances (1.2 per cent of all A&E attendances).
- June and July were the busiest months for attendances with 57,100 and 56,400 per day recorded in the data respectively. January was the least busy month with 48,800 attendances recorded per day.
- Over half (53.7 per cent) of attendances were for patients under 40. Patients aged 20-29 accounted for 15.9 per cent, while 14.4 per cent of all attendances were for those under 10.
Responsible statistician Jane Winter said:
The report highlights the times, days and months these services have been used over the last year. The fact that over a third of admissions had a recorded treatment of ‘guidance/advice only’ doesn’t necessarily mean a wasted A&E attendance.”
