Accident and Emergency Departments

(asked on 18th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients were admitted via accident and emergency departments with a primary diagnosis that was not classifiable in each month of financial years (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14, (e) 2014-15, (f) 2015-16 and (g) 2016-17.


Answered by
Philip Dunne Portrait
Philip Dunne
This question was answered on 26th October 2017

A count of unplanned accident and emergency (A&E) attendances1 resulting in an admission2 and a primary diagnosis of ‘diagnosis not classifiable’3, for the financial years between 2010-11 and 2016-174 is provided in the table below. This is a count of hospital attendances resulting in admissions, not individual patients as the same person may have been admitted into an National Health Service hospital on more than one occasion.

Month

Year

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

2016-17

April

37,740

48,755

50,149

53,382

55,305

62,530

58,450

May

39,695

48,753

53,296

52,469

58,220

65,197

65,132

June

41,037

47,799

53,151

48,844

59,124

66,796

62,366

July

41,722

48,054

53,033

52,540

60,879

67,338

64,002

August

41,414

47,754

50,306

50,287

56,810

63,908

59,315

September

44,049

48,496

49,315

49,653

60,102

63,260

58,497

October

46,182

50,221

51,370

52,493

63,135

63,694

61,314

November

45,940

47,156

50,833

52,635

64,074

61,605

58,731

December

49,192

48,971

53,847

53,677

69,417

61,051

62,629

January

47,290

49,545

53,625

55,494

64,804

63,027

60,181

February

45,542

48,959

50,322

50,355

59,735

58,268

55,642

March

52,713

50,701

55,666

57,408

66,940

63,248

63,397

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital

Notes:

1The following attendance category codes identify unplanned A&E attendances:

1 = First A&E attendance

3 = Follow-up A&E attendance - unplanned

9 = Not known

2Attendance disposal 01 = Admitted to hospital bed / become a lodged patient of the same health care provider.

3The recording of the diagnosis field within the A&E data set is not mandatory. It is not known to what extent changes over time are as a result of improvements in recording practice.

38 = Diagnosis not classifiable

4HES figures are available from 2007-08 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage and changes in NHS practice. For example, changes in activity may be due to changes in the provision of care. Note that HES include activity ending in the year in question and run from April to March, e.g. 2012-13 includes activity occurring between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013.

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