A&E attendances on the rise

Over half of A&E attendees stay for over two hours, statistics from the NHS Information Centre show. The figures are from A&E attendances in England during 2010/11.

The report shows that stays of over two hours rose from 50.6%, or 7.6 million in the previous year, to 53.7%, 8.5 million in 2010/11. Additionally, attendance of over four hours rose from 4% to 5.6%.

The rise was before the Government scrapped the four-hour A&E target and replaced it with a new set of quality indicators.

The total attendances in A&E in England this year was 16.2 million, up from 15.6 million in 2009/10. Overall, 57.4% (9.3 million) of all attendances resulted in patients being discharged while 21.9% (3.6 million) of all attendances were admitted into hospital.

To view the full report, visit www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/aandeattendance101