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The British government has released its latest quarterly statistics on accident and emergency (A&E) provision in the the UK.
The Department of Health figures cover A&E attendances for the first three months of the year, with particular reference to the total time spent in A&E from arrival to admission, discharge or transfer and waiting for emergency admission through A&E.
Across all A&E types, 97.9% of patients spent four hours or less from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge – a 0.3% decrease on the same period last year. This includes 246,491 attendances at independent sector (IS) provided services and gives a total of 19.1 million attendances at all A&E settings.
Of the 13.4 million patients who attended major A&E departments, 22.6% (3 million) needed to be admitted to hospital. Of these, 97.4% were placed in a bed in a ward within four hours of a decision to admit. The figure for last year was 98.1%.
During the quarter there were 4.6 million attendances at all types of A&E departments provided by the NHS, a 0.5% decrease from the same quarter last year and a 2.0% decrease from the previous quarter.
Over the full year 2007/08 there were 18.9 million attendances at all types of A&E departments provided by the NHS, a 0.2% decrease on 2006/07.
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