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Digital

Publication, Part of

Provisional Accident and Emergency Quality Indicators - England, by provider for May 2017 and June 2017

Official statistics, Experimental statistics
Publication Date:
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
Hospital Trusts, NHS Trusts, Independent Sector Health Care Providers
Date Range:
01 May 2017 to 30 Jun 2017

Summary

This report, generated from Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) A& E data, sets out data coverage, data quality and performance information for the following five A&E indicators:

• Left department before being seen for treatment rate
• Re-attendance rate
• Time to initial assessment
• Time to treatment
• Total time in A& E

Publishing these data will help share information on the quality of care of A&E services to stimulate the discussion and debate between patients, clinicians, providers and commissioners, which is needed in a culture of continuous improvement.

The data used in these reports are sourced from Provisional A&E HES data, and as such these data may differ to information extracted directly from Secondary Uses Service (SUS) data, or data extracted directly from local patient administration systems. Provisional HES data may be revised throughout the year.

From August 2017 onwards the scheduling of this publication series is changing. This decision has been made with the view of reducing the delay in data availability from 10 weeks to 6 weeks. To ensure there are no gaps in the series, the August 2017 release includes May 2017 data and June 2017 data. Please see related links for more information.

Highlights

May 2017

  • A&E HES data contains 1.78 million A&E attendances for May 2017 at all types of A&E. However, A&E HES data are incomplete; over 1.91 million A&E attendances were reported in the Department of Health Situation Report data collection for the month, and 59 organisations that report data to Situation Reports did not report data to A&E HES; these organisations are mostly lower acuity services such as minor injury units and walk-in centres.
     
  • Several organisations reported data that did not meet the data quality checks required by A&E indicators. The 95th percentile and longest single wait information are particularly sensitive to poor data quality, outliers and data definitional issues, which contributes to why some unusually high values may be observed for these measures.
     
  • Nationally, 3.3 per cent of attendances at A&E departments were recorded as having left A&E before being seen for treatment, and 8.0 per cent of attendances in A&E in May 2017 were unplanned re-attendances within 7 days of a previous attendance.
     
  • The median average time to initial assessment for attendances brought to A&E by ambulance was 7 minutes, with 95 per cent of patients being assessed within 94 minutes. For all patients receiving treatment, the median average time to treatment was 59 minutes with 95 per cent of patients receiving treatment within 3 hours 33 minutes.
     
  • The median average total time in A&E for all patients was 2 hours 28 minutes, with 95 per cent of patients departing A&E within 6 hours 48 minutes of arrival.

 

June 2017

  • A&E HES data contains 1.68 million A&E attendances for June 2017 at all types of A&E.  However, A&E HES data are incomplete; over 1.82 million A&E attendances were reported in the Department of Health Situation Report data collection for the month, and 61 organisations that report data to Situation Reports did not report data to A&E HES; these organisations are mostly lower acuity services such as minor injury units and walk-in centres.
     
  • Several organisations reported data that did not meet the data quality checks required by A&E indicators.  The 95th percentile and longest single wait information are particularly sensitive to poor data quality, outliers and data definitional issues, which contributes to why some unusually high values may be observed for these measures.
     
  • Nationally, 3.3 per cent of attendances at A&E departments were recorded as having left A&E before being seen for treatment, and 8.0 per cent of attendances in A&E in June 2017 were unplanned re-attendances within 7 days of a previous attendance.
     
  • The median average time to initial assessment for attendances brought to A&E by ambulance was 6 minutes, with 95 per cent of patients being assessed within 82 minutes.  For all patients receiving treatment, the median average time to treatment was 57 minutes with 95 per cent of patients receiving treatment within 3 hours 27 minutes.
     
  • The median average total time in A&E for all patients was 2 hours 24 minutes, with 95 per cent of patients departing A&E within 6 hours 24 minutes of arrival.

Resources

Related Links

Last edited: 11 April 2018 5:04 pm