Unnecessary emergency admissions

WEST Leicestershire patients were admitted to hospital as an emergency more than 4,000 times in a year...for conditions that should not have needed hospital treatment.

Doctors groups said rising numbers of such admissions were due to cuts to social care and a lack of GP appointments, warning that without more funding the situation was unlikely to improve.

Figures show there were 4,459 emergency hospital admissions for patients living in the area in 2016/17, for conditions such as ear/nose/throat infections, kidney/urinary tract infections and angina that should not usually require hospital treatment.

The numbers of such admissions for patients living in the West Leicestershire CCG have risen by 33% in six years, from 3,346 admissions in 2010/11.

Across England, there were 762,849 emergency admissions for conditions that should not normally require hospital treatment in 2016/17, according to figures from NHS DIgital.

This was 29% higher than the 590,252 admissions for these conditions recorded in 2010/11.

President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Taj Hassan, said: “These figures show just how complex our emergency care systems are, with pressures elsewhere being manifested in ncreasinglystrained emergency departments.

“This increase in preventable emergency admissions is in part due to our aging and expanding population, but in the main is due to cuts to social care provision and a lack of GP appointments. Without an increase in resourcing to these areas, we are unlikely to see this problem decline any time soon.”

Overall, the total number of such admissions in 2016/17 equates to one in eight (13.2%) of the 5.8m emergency admissions in 2016/17.

BMA representative body chair Dr Anthea Mowat said the increase was a direct result of a lack of capacity in community services across the country.