ambulance

One percent of the population make up a third of ambulance call outs

The British Red Cross have found that that 367,000 people, which equates to around one percent of the population in England attend A&E up to 346 times a year.

These figures accounted for nearly one in three ambulance call outs and over one in six A&E visits.

The research analysis found that a fifth of those repeatedly attending A&E lived alone and also often lived in deprived areas of the country.

Frequent users also accounted for 29% of all ambulance call outs and 16% of non-minor-injury A&E visits.

The data also revealed that people in their twenties were more likely to repeatedly visit A&E than any other age category.

Mike Adamson, chief executive of the British Red Cross, said: 'High intensity use of A&E is closely associated with deprivation and inequalities - if you overlay a map of frequent A&E use and a map of deprivation, they're essentially the same.'

'When multiple patients are making repeat visits to an A&E, that should flag the need to tackle other issues like barriers to accessing services, or societal inequalities that affect people's health.

'For example, housing insecurity is a common challenge - people who frequently come to A&E move home more often than the general population.

'This has a knock-on effect on people's finances, mental health, social networks and access to services."

The charity is calling for high intensity use services to be available in all areas of the country to focus on the current health inequalities that are contributing heavily to repeated us of A&E services.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has found in a recent report that more tan 4,500 patients have died due to overcrowding and long A&E waits over the past year.

The report also found that one in 67 patients in England faced ‘excess harm’ due to these issues between 2020-2021.

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