Hospital Outpatient Activity 2023-24

In 2023-24 there were 135.4 million outpatient appointments, of which 104.6 million were attended by patients.

This represents a 8.1% increase in appointments and a 8.3% increase in attendances from 2022-23.

Please note that the published number of appointments and attendances for 2022-23 are estimated to have been 1.3 million and 1.0 million records respectively less than the actual level of activity, as one provider was unable to submit data between June 2022 and March 2023.

Attendances, whether first or subsequent, as a proportion of total appointments, have decreased over the period from 80.6% in 2013-14 to 77.3% in 2023-24.

Between 2022-23 and 2023-24, 'DId not attends' increased by just over 16,800 (0.2%) and 'Patient Cancellations' increased by just over 960,000 (10.9%). 'Hospital Cancellations' increased by 1.24 million (9.3%).

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 2023-24 the figure was 6.5%.

'Hospital Cancellations' (9.9%) now exceed the proportions seen before the COVID19 pandemic (8.7% in 2019-20), although 'Did Not Attends' (5.9%) which in 2022-23 exceded pre-COVID19 proportions (6.2% in 2019-20) , have now fallen back down below them again in 2023-24. 

In 2023-24 London Commissioning Region had the highest number of appointments (29.5 million) and attendances (20.9 million), while the South West Commissioning Region had the lowest appointments (12.7 million) and the East of England Commissioning Region had the lowest number of attendances (10.1 million). This is somewhat different to 2022-23, when London Commissioning Region had the highest appointments and attendances (27.1 million and 19.5 million respectively) and the South West Commissioning Region had the lowest number of appointments and attendances (10.6 million appointments and 8.4 million attendances).

However, London Commissioning Region also had the lowest percentage of appointments that were attended in 2023-24  (70.9%), while the South West Commissioning Region had the highest (81.1%). Attendance rates for other regions are similar to those for the South West, with South East Commissioning Region (the area with the seconf lowest percentage) being at 78.0%.

In 2022-23 London also had the lowest percentage of attented appointments (71.8%) while the South West had the highest (79.4%). 

There were 60.2 million attendances for females (58.4%), compared to 42.9 million for males (41.6%).

For females, the age group with greatest number of attendances was 30-34 years (5.3 million); for males it was 75-79 years (4.6 million). When maternity-related activity is excluded, the female age group with the greatest number of attendances is also 75-79 years (4.7 million).

Patients aged 60 years and over accounted for 45.1% of all attendances (46.5 million).

40.5% 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 (280,200), attendances (203,000)  and 'did not attend' appointments (22,900) per 100,000 population.

Appointments and attendances per100,000 population for the asian, black and white population were simllar at 180,700, 213,600 and 191,800 respectively, but among asian and particularly black patients, 'did not attends' were more prevalent, with 13,400 and 21,000 per 100,000 population respectively compared to 10,200 for the white ethnic group.