Warning over number of emergency hospital admissions

The National Audit Office (NAO) has said that the finances and function of the NHS are under threat because too many patients are being admitted as medical emergencies.

According to the spending watchdog, which is concerned over the way the NHS is handling an ageing population, one in four of the growing number of mainly older people who end up in inpatient care should not be in hospital in the first place.

The statistics show that overall emergency admissions grew by 24 per cent from 2007-08 to 2016-17, with 5.8 million emergency admissions last year, 24 per cent of which were deemed avoidable by NHS England. The rise in emergency admissions of people aged 65 and over was 12 per cent in the past four years.

Whilst commending the NHS for its efforts and actions this winter, the NAO says there are not enough services outside of hospitals to keep patients healthier, arguing that £3.43 billion a year of NHS funds may be being wasted on people who, with better care, would not have ended up falling ill.

The NAO recommends that the Department of Health & Social Care and NHS England establish an evidence base for what works in reducing emergency admissions and use this to inform future national programmes. This should include linking hospital activity data with primary, community health care and social care data to enable health and social care practitioners so they can make the most informed decision about whether a patient requires emergency hospital treatment.

Amya’s Morse, head of the NAO, said: “It is a problem for all of us that A&Es remain overloaded and a constant point of stress for patients and the NHS. A lot of effort is being made by NHS England. At the centre of this is increased ‘daycase’ treatment but the decision to stop methodical measurement of emergency readmissions a few years ago makes it difficult to understand whether daycase interventions achieve enduring results.”