Emergency Presentations of Cancer: Quarterly Data, Q1 to Q3 2021/22 (Apr to Dec 2021)

Across the 106 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), the proportion of cancer patients presenting as an emergency varied for the three most recent quarters (April to June 2021, July to September 2021 and October to December 2021) (Table 1). There are no obvious geographical patterns to the CCG variation (Figure 3).

 Table 1: Variation in the proportion of emergency presentations across 106 CCGs

The 1-year rolling proportions of cancer patients presenting as an emergency were stable for the majority of CCGs prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparing April 2016 to March 2017 and April 2019 to March 2020 the 1-year rolling proportion of emergency presentations had not changed significantly for 80 CCGs, had fallen significantly for 25 CCGs, and had risen significantly for 1 CCG.  

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic the proportion of cancer patients presenting as an emergency increased for each 1-year rolling period which included the first national COVID-19 lockdown for most CCGs.  Comparing April 2019 to March 2020 and April 2020 to March 2021 the proportion of cancer patients presenting as an emergency had risen significantly for 86 CCGs, fallen significantly for 1 CCG and not changed significantly for 19 CCGs.

For the three most recent 1-year rolling periods, the proportion of cancer patients presenting as an emergency has either remained stable or fallen. Comparing April 2020 to March 2021 and January 2021 to December 2021, the 1-year rolling proportion has not changed significantly for 42 CCGs, has fallen significantly for 64 CCGs and has not increased for any CCG.

For the majority of CCGs, the 1-year rolling proportions had returned to levels observed before the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparing January to December 2021 to January to December 2019, the 1-year rolling proportion had not changed significantly for 81 CCGs, was significantly higher for 21 CCGs and was significantly lower for 4 CCGs.