Hospital Outpatient Activity 2022-23

In 2022-23 there were 124.5 million outpatient appointments, of which 95.9 million were attended by patients.

This represents a 1.7% increase in appointments and a 0.4% increase in attendances from 2021-22.

Attendances, whether first or subsequent, as a proportion of total appointments, have decreased over the period from 80.2% in 2012-13 to 77.1% in 2022-23.

Between 2021-22 and 2022-23, 'DId not attends' increased by just over 176 ,000 (2.3%) and 'Patient Cancellations' increased by just over 1.06 million (15.6%). 'Hospital Cancellations' increased by 462,000 (4.0%).

The increase in patient cancellations reflects a drift towards rates seen before the COVID19 pandemic. In 2019-20 7.1% of all appointments were cancelled by patients; for 2022-23 the figure was 6.3%.

'Did not attends' (6.4%) and 'Hospital Cancellations' (9.7%) now exceed the proportions seen before the COVID19 pandemic (6.2% and 8.7% respectively in 2019-20). 

In 2022-23 London Commissioning Region had the highest number of appointments (27.1 million) and attendances (19.5 million), while the South West Commissioning Region had the lowest (10.6 million and 8.4 million respectively). This is similar to 2021-22, when London Commissioning Region had 26.0 million appointments and 19.3 million attendances and the South West Commissioning Region had 10.6 million appointment and 8.5 million attendnces.

However, London Commissioning Region also had the lowest percentage of appointments that were attended in 2022-23 (71.8%), while the South West Commissioning Region had the highest (79.4%). In 2021-22 London also had the lowest percentage of attented appointments (74.1%) while the Midlands had the highest (80.0%).

There were 55.4 million attendances for females (58.1%), compared to 40.0 million for males (41.9%).

For females, the age group with greatest number of attendances was 30-34 years (4.9 million); for males it was 75-79 years (4.2 million). When maternity-related activity is excluded, the female age group with the greatest number of attendances is also 75-79 years (4.2 million).

Patients aged 60 years and over accounted for 44.4% of all attendances (42.3 million).

40.6% of attendances for females aged 20-39 years were for maternity services, defined as where the treatment specialty was either ‘Obstetrics’ or ‘Midwife Episode’.

The ‘Other’ ethnic group recorded both the highest rate of appointments (249,400), attendances (181,800)  and 'did not attend' appointments (21,300) per 100,000 population.

Appointments and attendances per100,000 population for the black and white population were simllar at 189,800 and 181,300 respectively, but among black patients, 'did not attends' were more prevalent, with 19,000 per 100,000 population compared to 10,500 for the white ethnic group.