People in most deprived areas twice as likely to visit A&E

NHS Digital’s Hospital Accident and Emergency Activity 2019/20 also shows that attendances for the 20% of the population living in the most deprived areas accounted for 27% of all A&E attendances (5.9 million attendances).

The report, created in partnership with NHS England and NHS Improvement, brings together newly published data from NHS Digital’s Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) with previously published data from NHS England and NHS Improvement’s A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions Monthly Situation Reports (MSitAE).

It includes attendances from all types of Accident and Emergency departments ranging from major A&E departments, single specialty, consultant-led emergency departments to Minor Injury Units and Walk-in Centres.

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HES data in the report shows for 2019/20 that Monday is the busiest day of the week, accounting for 16% of all attendances during 2019-20 (3.63m attendances).

The most popular time of arrival on a Monday is between 10am and midday, accounting for 15.2% of attendances on this day (552,000 attendances).

The number of reattendances to A&E within seven days was 1.95 million and accounted for 8.7% of all reported attendances.

Patients arriving from 8am to 10am generally spent the shortest time in A&E with 16% of patients arriving between 8am and 8.59am spending one hour or less; and 85% of arrivals between 9am and 9.59am spending four hours or less.

Looking at all arrival times, 2.3% (520,000) of all attendances in 2019/20 spent more than 12 hours in A&E, compared with 1.5% (333,000) in 2018/19. This measures the entire duration of stay in A&E.

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