Emergency hospital admissions in England

Which may be avoidable and how?

New research led by the Health Foundation looks at trends in emergency admissions over the past decade and reviews some of the interventions aimed at reducing them. 

Read the full list of key points

The briefing also identifies opportunities to reduce emergency admissions including:

• Approximately 14% of all emergency admissions are for ‘ambulatory sensitive’ conditions – conditions such as asthma where timely and effective primary care could reduce the likelihood of admission.
• If older patients saw their regular GP two more times out of every ten consultations, this would be associated with a 6% decrease in admissions for ambulatory sensitive conditions.
• Around 26.5% of all unplanned A&E attendances in England (5.77 million per year) were preceded by the patient being unable to obtain a GP appointment that was convenient to them, however few of these A&E attendances will have resulted in an admission.