Time spent in NHS accident and emergency departments: April 2017 to March 2018

Main points

• There were 1,030,680 attendances to A&E departments, the highest on record. This was 2.7% more than 2016-17 (27,016 more), the largest annual percentage increase since 2006-07. There was an average of 2,824 attendances a day, 74 more a day than 2016-17.
• 81.7% of patients spent less than 4 hours in A&E departments from arrival until admission, transfer or discharge. This is 0.3 percentage points less than in 2016-17 and the lowest performance on record. Although, the number of patients spending less than the target time in A&E was 841,617, 19,355 more than in 2016-17 and the most since 2013-14.
• 38,904 patients spent longer than 12 hours in Accident and Emergency departments, 5,062 more than the previous year and the highest number on record. Overall, 3.8% of patients spent longer than 12 hours in A&E in 2017-18, 0.4 percentage points more than in 2016-17.
• Patients over the age of 85 spent longer than average from arrival until admission, transfer or discharge.