Data & Statistics

The healthcare service across the four nations of the UK regularly publish important datasets relating to the performance of the urgent and emergency care system. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine closely monitors and analyses this data.

Our analysis is used to inform our policy and campaigns work and is published here on a monthly basis.

We use various datasets from all of the four UK nations to inform our work. Below you’ll find links to the main datasets and interactive charts that show how they’ve changed over time.

England

October 2021 Performance figures

October 2021 saw a lot of the worst ever figures on record with only 61.9% of patients admitted, transferred, or discharged within 4 hours and 121,251 and 7059 patients waiting at least 4- and 12-hours respectively from the decision to admit them to admission.
There were 1,419,072 type 1 attendances and 389,048 type 1 attendances, both an increase on the previous two months but lower than those seen in the Summer.

Attendances and Admissions

There were 1,419,072 type 1 attendances, an increase on the previous month and the third highest number of attendances on record.
There were 389,048 type 1 admissions, also an increase on the previous month but lower than the number of admissions seen in the summer months (May-July).
- Admissions are higher than October 2020 but lower than 2019 and 2018.
27.4% of attendances were admitted in October. This has increased slightly compared to the previous month yet is still the second lowest of the year and the lowest October percentage since 2016.
Once again, the 4-hour percentage is at an all-time low, standing at only 61.9%.
- This means that 38.1% of patients are waiting more than 4 hours from arrival until admission, transfer, or discharge.
- This is a 2.1 percentage point decrease compared September 2021 and a 15.7 percentage point decrease compared to October 2020.
4- and 12-hour DTA waits have both increased considerably since the previous month and are both the highest on record, standing at 121,251 and 7059 respectively. This means that 23.5% of admissions are facing considerable DTA waits.
- The 4-hour DTA wait figure is 16% higher than the now second highest figure from September 2021 (104,875) and the 12-hour DTA wait figure is a staggering 40% than the second highest figure from September 2021 (5025).
These figures show that ED performance is not just slipping but deteriorating at significant rate, as each month sees considerably more patients waiting the longest amounts of time in EDs.

Booked attendances

Whilst booked attendances have been consistently decreasing over the past five months, October 2021 saw a slight increase in booked attendances to type 1 EDs, standing 34,670 (compared to 32,869 in September).
However, performance has continued to decrease:
- Almost 6000 booked attendance patients waited more than 4 hours from arrival to admission, transfer, or discharge, meaning that only 78.9% met the 4-hour target. Although still considerably higher than the non-booked 4-hour percentage (61.5%), this shows that booked attendances do not necessarily guarantee quick access to care.

Scotland

August 2021

There were 117,552 attendances at major A&E services (Type 1) in Scotland. This is a decrease of 11% compared to the previous month, July 2021.
75.4% of attendances at major A&E services (Type 1) were seen and resulted in a subsequent admission, transfer or discharge within 4 hours. This is a decrease of 4.1 percentage points when compared to the previous month, July 2021.
5,460 patients spent more than 8 hours in an A&E department. This is the highest figure on record and is 49% higher than the second worst performance on record in December 2019.
1,410 patients spent more than 12 hours in an A&E department. This is almost double that (780 patients) of the previous month, July 2021.
24.8% of attendances led to an admission to hospital.

DTOC

At the August 2021 census point, there were 1,461 people delayed. This is an increase of 7% compared to the July 2021 census point when 1,363 people were delayed.
Of those delayed at the August 2021 census point, 1,179 people were delayed more than three days, with health and social care reasons accounting for 780 delays (66%), complex needs accounting for 360 delays (31%) and patient and family-related reasons for 39 delays (3%).

Cancelled Electives

Of all planned operations during August 2021 496 (2.4%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or nonclinical reasons. Cancellation based on capacity or non-clinical reason by hospital includes ‘no beds available’, ‘staff not available’, ‘equipment not available’ and ‘theatre session overran’. This is a decrease of 15% compared to the previous month, July 2021.