03.12.13
A&E attendances up 11% in four years
A&E departments dealt with 21.7 million attendances in 2012/13, the latest statistics show.
The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) has published ‘Focus on Accident and Emergency December 2013’, highlighting “striking consistencies” in patterns of activity across time.
The total number of attendances demonstrates an 11% rise on four years ago. Minor units dealt with almost 32 in every 100 attendees, up from 28 in 2008/09, the report shows. Of these attendees, 63 in every 100 were aged under 40 while 12 in every 100 were over 64.
The majority of attendances occur during normal working hours – between 9am and 6pm. Around one A&E patient in five is admitted to hospital, although this rises to nearly two in five for over-64s.
Interestingly, out of every 20 A&E attendances, 13 refer themselves. Only one in 20 is referred by a GP.
HSCIC chair Kingsley Manning said: “HSCIC has responsibility for a wealth of national health and social care statistics and therefore, as an independent authority in this area, can usefully harness its expertise to help shed light on the A&E debate.
“A&E is a complex area that statistics alone cannot fully explain– but good quality information is vital towards gaining a clear understanding of patterns and trends in activity over time.”
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