The role of major A&E departments is to assess and treat patients who have serious and unforeseen injuries or illnesses. Major A&E departments are consultant-led, open 24 hours a day and 365 days a year with full resuscitation facilities. Not all hospitals have an A&E department.
In addition to major A&E departments, single specialty A&E departments, walk-in centres and minor injury units are also covered by the A&E HES data. People can attend these services without an appointment. They deal with a range of minor injuries and illnesses. All data tables include all of these groups unless otherwise stated.
Type 1 A&E department = A consultant led 24 hour service with full resuscitation facilities and designated accommodation for the reception of accident and emergency patients.
Type 2 A&E department = A consultant led single specialty accident and emergency service (e.g. ophthalmology, dental) with designated accommodation for the reception of patients.
Type 3 A&E department / Type 4 A&E department / Urgent Care Centre = Other type of A&E/minor injury units (MIUs)/Walk-in Centres (WiCs)/Urgent Care Centre, primarily designed for the receiving of accident and emergency patients.
A Type 3 department may be doctor led or nurse led. It may be co-located with a major A&E or sited in the community. A defining characteristic of a service qualifying as a Type 3 department is that it treats at least minor injuries and illnesses (sprains for example) and can be routinely accessed without appointment. An appointment based service (for example an outpatient clinic) or one mainly or entirely accessed via telephone or other referral (for example most out of hours services), or a dedicated primary care service (such as GP practice or GP-led health centre) is not a Type 3 A&E service even though it may treat a number of patients with minor illness or injury.