Express & Star

A&E admissions rise with more than 700,000 cases in past year

More than 700,000 admissions to A&E have been made in the Black Country in the last year, latest figures show.

Published

The statistics reveal an increase of more than 55,000 attendances on the previous year.

Sandwell and West Birmingham was the worst-hit area, with 205,443 admissions, followed by the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust with 153,051.

The University Hospital of the North Midlands, in Stafford, had 141,683 attendees, The Dudley Group NHS Trust had 99,927 and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust had 85,190. Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent NHS Partnership had 22,140 admissions, making a grand total of 709,098 – 55,432 more than last year.

The Black Country accounts for 4.4 per cent of the 19.6 million people in England that attended A&E in the last year.

Of the attendees made in the UK, over a third had recorded treatment of 'guidance/advice only', and one in five resulted in an admission to hospital.

More than 57 per cent of attendances were discharged with either a GP follow-up or no follow-up required.

Nationally, nearly one in four patients (4.5 million) arrived by ambulance or helicopter. Monday continued to be the most popular day for A&E attendances, accounting for 15.8 per cent of all attendances.

There was a fairly even spread of attendances across all other days of the week. The busiest hour of arrival on a Monday was 10am with 230,200 attendances, 1.2 per cent of all A&E attendances.

June and July were the busiest months for attendances with 57,100 and 56,400 per day respectively. January was the least busy month with 48,800 attendances recorded per day. Over half of attendances were for patients under 40.

Responsible statistician Jane Winter said: "The report highlights the times, days and months these services have been used over the last year. The fact that over a third of admissions had a recorded treatment of 'guidance/advice only' doesn't necessarily mean a wasted A&E attendance."

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