Publication, Part of Hospital Accident & Emergency Activity

Hospital Accident & Emergency Activity 2019-20

Official statistics

Publication Date:: 10 Sep 2020
Geographic Coverage:: England
Geographical Granularity:: Country, Strategic Health Authorities, NHS Trusts, Hospital Trusts, Independent Sector Health Care Providers
Date Range:: 01 Apr 2019 to 31 Mar 2020

Home Nations Comparative Analysis of A&E Attendances and Waiting Times

Background

For the third year running, an additional file has been published providing supplementary information to this report that provides a comparison of the number of unplanned A&E attendances, 4 hour and 12 hour waiting time performance for each of the four home nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). To compare across all nations this comparison is for Type 1 or Major A&E departments within each nation.

This builds upon work undertaken by statisticians in all four home nations that have collaborated as part of the ‘UK Comparative Waiting Times Group’. The aim of the group was to look across published health statistics, in particular waiting times, and compile a comparison of (i) what is measured in each country, (ii) how the statistics are similar and (iii) where they have key differences. The first area relates to A&E data.

The data sources for this analysis are:

• Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)

• A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions Monthly Situation Reports (MSitAE)

• Public Health Scotland A&E Datamart

• Emergency department data set (EDDS), NHS Wales Informatics Services (NWIS)

• Hospital Information Branch, Information & Analysis Directorate, Department of Health (Northern Ireland)

Data comparability

Data has been published monthly since June 2015. Before this, data was published weekly from November 2010 to June 2015. Prior to November 2010, data was briefly collected monthly between August 2010 and October 2010 and was collected quarterly from 2003-04 until September 2011.

The data can also be compared to A&E data for Wales collected by the Welsh Government, data for Scotland collected from Public Health Scotland A&E datamart and data for Northern Ireland collected from the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. The link below includes the description of the technical differences between data from the four administrations:

The Welsh Government publishes monthly data on A&E attendances and performance against the 4-hour standard

Public Health Scotland now publishes a weekly update on A&E attendances and performance against the 4-hour standard

The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety publishes quarterly data on A&E attendances and performance against the 4-hour standard

The UK Comparative Waiting Times Group has published a summary of the differences in methodologies between the four countries