This indicator measures the percentage of admissions of people who returned to hospital as an emergency within 30 days of the last time they left hospital after a stay. Admissions for cancer and obstetrics are excluded as they may be part of the patient’s care plan.
This indicator aims to measure the success of the NHS in helping people to recover effectively from illnesses or injuries. If a person does not recover well, it is more likely that they will require hospital treatment again within the 30 days following their previous admission. Thus, readmissions are widely used as an indicator of the success of healthcare in helping people to recover.
There is an ongoing review by NHS Digital of Emergency Readmissions which includes indicators across the frameworks. Phase Two of the review has been on hold during the pandemic although we hope to re-start this work during 2021. During the review this indicator is designated as an experimental statistic. Experimental statistics are official statistics which are published in order to involve users and stakeholders in their development and as a means to build in quality at an early stage.
Please see the methodological change paper and specification, linked below, for more details.
Legacy unique identifier: P01758