Accident and Emergency Departments
(asked on 24th 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 where nothing abnormal was detected in each month of (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14, (e) 2014-15, (f) 2015-16 and (g) 2016-17.
A count of unplanned accident and emergency (A&E) attendances1 resulting in an admission2 and a primary diagnosis of Nothing abnormal was detected3, for the financial years between 2010-11 and 2016-174.
This is a count of hospital attendances resulting in admissions, not individual patients as the same person may have been admitted into a National Health Service hospital on more than one occasion.
| 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
April | 4,923 | 5,223 | 4,530 | 5,575 | 5,376 | 5,366 | 5,476 |
May | 5,093 | 5,263 | 4,854 | 6,696 | 5,424 | 5,585 | 4,411 |
June | 5,865 | 5,242 | 4,540 | 6,294 | 5,320 | 5,379 | 4,033 |
July | 5,750 | 4,787 | 4,964 | 6,798 | 5,508 | 5,045 | 4,137 |
August | 4,760 | 4,589 | 4,718 | 6,585 | 5,170 | 4,310 | 3,782 |
September | 4,637 | 5,068 | 4,418 | 6,412 | 4,866 | 4,799 | 4,396 |
October | 4,497 | 5,708 | 4,771 | 6,877 | 5,323 | 5,058 | 4,734 |
November | 4,440 | 5,046 | 4,433 | 7,078 | 4,731 | 5,253 | 4,516 |
December | 4,474 | 5,074 | 5,283 | 6,939 | 5,742 | 5,162 | 4,266 |
January | 4,568 | 5,320 | 5,134 | 5,316 | 5,563 | 5,420 | 4,217 |
February | 4,082 | 5,085 | 4,615 | 4,706 | 4,967 | 5,851 | 3,733 |
March | 4,719 | 5,478 | 5,521 | 5,278 | 5,000 | 6,411 | 4,275 |
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.
3A&E Diagnosis – The 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
39 = Nothing abnormal was detected
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.