Hospital Accident & Emergency Activity 2020-21

This section reports how the distribution of A&E attendances varies with the time of day, day of the week and the month of arrival for 2020-21 as:

• All attendances by time of day compared with the day of the week

• Attendances brought in by ambulance by time of day

• Average attendances per day for each month

• Percentage of Attendances Admitted from A&E by Month

• Percentage of Attendances Admitted from A&E by Year

Users should note there was a reduction of A&E attendances for the financial year 2020-21, the main period of the COVID-19 outbreak. It is envisaged that this reduction would primarily relate to activity less likely to require admission, which may inflate the proportion of attendances during this time that have led to a hospital admission.

Monday experiences the highest volume of attendances. On each day of the week the highest volume of attendances are between the hours of 11:00 and 12:00.

The early hours in the morning have the lowest number of ambulance attendances; however the proportion of people to arrive by ambulance is at its highest.

Daytime has the highest total of ambulance attendances; however the vast majority of people arrive by other means.

For 2020-21 the average number of attendances per day is lower than both of the previous two years for every month except March 2021. This is when attendances are starting to rise and are higher than March 2020. Users should note there was a reduction in attendances from March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The proportion of A&E attendances that led to a hospital admission was higher throughout the entire financial year of 2020-21 compared with both of the previous years. The proportion increases from 19 per cent to 28 per cent between February 2020 and April 2020, decreasing back down to 22 per cent in August 2020, before rising up to 27 per cent in January 2021, where the proportion has reduced again since this time.

Changes in behaviours, both as individuals and also in regard to service provision driven by the response to the coronavirus pandemic, particularly around announcements relating to national lockdowns, reduced the numbers of overall attendances in this time. This may result in care activity for more severe conditions being more prevalent within the data that have increased likelihood of requiring hospital admission.

From 2011-12 to 2019-20 the percentage of A&E attendances who are admitted has risen steadily from 17 per cent to 19 per cent. This then further increased to 24 per cent for 2020-21.

Data excludes other emergency admissions (i.e. not via A&E).