Update 2 March 2023: Following the merger of NHS Digital and NHS England on 1st February 2023 we are reviewing the future presentation of the NHS Outcomes Framework indicators. As part of this review, the annual publication which was due to be released in March 2023 has been delayed. Further announcements about this dataset will be made on this page in due course.
This indicator measures the percentage of admissions of people who returned to hospital as an emergency within 30 days of the last time they left hospital after a stay. Admissions for cancer and obstetrics are excluded as they may be part of the patient’s care plan.
This indicator aims to measure the success of the NHS in helping people to recover effectively from illnesses or injuries. If a person does not recover well, it is more likely that they will require hospital treatment again within the 30 days following their previous admission. Thus, readmissions are widely used as an indicator of the success of healthcare in helping people to recover.
There is an ongoing review by NHS Digital of Emergency Readmissions which includes indicators across the frameworks. Phase Two of the review has been on hold during the pandemic although we hope to re-start this work during 2022. During the review this indicator is designated as an experimental statistic. Experimental statistics are official statistics which are published in order to involve users and stakeholders in their development and as a means to build in quality at an early stage.
From the March 2022 publication onwards, the methodology used within the NHS OF emergency readmissions indicator will include the changes described in the methodological change paper linked below.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began to have an impact on Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data late in the 2019/20 financial year, which continued into the 2020/21 financial year. This means we are seeing different patterns in the submitted data, for example, fewer patients being admitted to hospital, and therefore statistics which contain data from this period should be interpreted with care.
Legacy unique identifier: P01758