Publication, Part of Hospital Accident & Emergency Activity

Hospital Accident & Emergency Activity, 2023-24

Official statistics

Publication Date:: 26 Sep 2024
Geographic Coverage:: England
Geographical Granularity:: Country, Strategic Health Authorities, NHS Trusts, Hospital Trusts, Independent Sector Health Care Providers
Date Range:: 01 Apr 2023 to 31 Mar 2024

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About this publication

Summary

This publication looks at Accident and Emergency activity in England for the financial year 2023-24. It describes NHS accident and emergency activity and performance in hospitals in England. The data sources for this publication are the Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS) and Emergency Admissions Monthly Situation Reports (MSitAE) relating to A&E attendances in NHS hospitals, minor injury units and walk-in centres. The report includes analysis by patient demographics, time spent in A&E, distributions by time of arrival and day of week, arriving by ambulance, performance times, waits for admission and reattendances to A&E within 7 days. The purpose of this publication is to inform and support strategic and policy-led processes for the benefit of patient care and may also be of interest to researchers, journalists and members of the public interested in NHS hospital activity in England.

Note: the MSitAE figures presented in the 'MSitAE Report Tables' file account for revisions to historic data and may therefore differ slightly from those shown in the 'Quality Indicators (CQI) Open Data' file, which is based on data published at fixed points in the year.

The MSitAE data referenced throughout this report are published monthly by NHS England on the separate 'NHS England MSitAE Home Page', as linked to in the Related Links section below. This publication includes the total number of attendances for all A&E types, including Urgent Treatment Centres, Minor Injury Units and Walk-in Centres, and of these, the number discharged, admitted or transferred within four hours of arrival. Also included are the number of Emergency Admissions, and any waits of over four hours for admission following decision to admit.

Contact details

Author: Secondary Care Open Data and Publications; Activity Capacity & Planning, NHS England

Responsible Statistician: Karl Eichler

Email: [email protected]

Press enquiries should be made to: Media Relations Manager: telephone 0300 303 3888

Highlights

Total A&E attendances

In 2023-24 there were 26.3 million attendances in Accident and Emergency (Source: MSitAE)

This is an increase of 3.8 per cent compared with 2022-23 and an increase of 22.5 per cent since 2011-12.

Total time spent in A&E

For 2023-24, 72.1 per cent of patient attendances spent 4 hours or less in A&E (Source: MSitAE).

This is an increase compared to 2022-23 where 70.8 per cent of patient attendances spent 4 hours or less in A&E.

A&E attendances in deprived areas

Rates of A&E attendances per head of population for people living in the most deprived areas are nearly double that of those in the least deprived (Source: ECDS)

There were around twice as many attendances to A&E departments in England for the 10% of the population living in the most deprived areas (3.3 million), compared with the least deprived 10% (1.7 million)

Home Nations Comparison

England had the second highest reported Type 1 A&E attendance rate amongst the home nations (Source: MSitAE)

England had 28,646 attendances per 100,000 population. Northern Ireland were the highest with 39,856 attendances per 100,000 population

A&E Attendances by Age Band

In 2023-24 patients aged under 35 years of age accounted for 45.6 per cent of all attendances. (Source: ECDS)

This has decreased from 47.4 per cent in 2022-23