Poor patients are twice as likely to go to hospital A&E
PEOPLE at the bottom of society are twice as likely to go to A&E.
Among the 10 per cent living in the most deprived parts of England, 3.1 million used hospital casualty departments, compared with 1.5 million from the wealthiest 10 per cent.
However, the NHS Digital report for 2018-’19 did not break down how it classed its areas.
The study also shows that attendances for the 20 per cent of the population living in the most deprived areas accounted for 27 per cent of all A&E appearances, which amounted to 5.9 million visits.
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The report brings together new data from NHS Digital’s Hospital Episode Statistics with previously published information from NHS England and NHS Improvement’s A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions Monthly Situation Reports.
It includes attendances from all types of accident and emergency units ranging from major departments and single specialty and consultant-led emergency departments to minor injury units and walk-in centres.
The report showed Monday is the busiest day, with the most popular time of arrival between 10am and noon.
Those turning up from 8am to 10am generally spent the shortest time in A&E with 16 per cent of patients between 8am and 8.59am spending one hour or less – and 90 per cent of arrivals between 9am and 9.59am spending four hours or less.
Looking at all arrival times, 1.5 per cent (330,000) of all attendances in 2018-’19 spent more than 12 hours in A&E, compared with 1.6 per cent in 2017-’18. This measures the entire duration of stay in A&E.
The number of patients who have to return within seven days was 1.9 million and accounted for 8.7 per cent of all reported visits.
Previously published data mentioned in the report showed there was a four per cent increase in attendances to A&E during 2018-’19 (24.8 million) compared with 2017-’18 (23.8 million) and a 21 per cent increase since 2009-’10 (20.5 million).
The average growth per year over the period since 2009-’10 is two per cent, compared with the population average growth for England of one per cent per year, over a similar period.