Patients
(asked on 23rd June 2014) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients were seen by (a) general practitioners and (b) accident and emergency staff in each of the last 15 years for which figures are available.
Information about numbers of patients seen by general practitioners (GPs) is available in Trends in Consultation Rates in General Practice – 1995-2009. This report estimates the number of consultations by GPs, nurses and other primary care clinicians in England using statistical techniques based on a sample. Consultations include visits to surgery, telephone consultations, home visits and consultations at other locations. Information is not available for years after 2008.
Information about numbers of patients seen by accident and emergency (A&E) staff is available from weekly situation reports about A&E activity and waiting times.
Such information as is available for the last 15 years is shown in the following table:
Numbers of GP consultations and A&E attendances in England, 1999-2000 to 2013-141
Calendar year | GP consultations | Financial year | A&E attendances2,3 |
1999 | 155,500,000 | 1999-2000 | 14,629,025 |
2000 | 155,100,000 | 2000-01 | 14,293,307 |
2001 | 161,900,000 | 2001-02 | 14,044,018 |
2002 | 162,100,000 | 2002-03 | 14,045,575 |
2003 | 168,900,000 | 2003-04 | 16,516,845 |
2004 | 170,900,000 | 2004-05 | 17,837,180 |
2005 | 175,400,000 | 2005-06 | 18,759,164 |
2006 | 181,400,000 | 2006-07 | 18,922,275 |
2007 | 185,300,000 | 2007-08 | 19,076,831 |
2008 | 189,000,000 | 2008-09 | 19,588,344 |
- | - | 2009-10 | 20,511,908 |
- | - | 2010-11 | 21,380,985 |
- | - | 2011-12 | 21,481,402 |
- | - | 2012-13 | 21,738,637 |
- | - | 2013-14 | 21,778,946 |
Sources:
Trends in Consultation Rates in General Practice - 1995-2009, Health and Social Care Information Centre
Accident and emergency weekly situation reports, NHS England
Notes:
1Information on GP consultations is for calendar years. Information on A&E attendances is for financial years. It is not possible to show both datasets on a consistent calendar or financial year basis.
2KH09 data is used from 1987-88 to 2001-02. Quarterly Monitoring of Accident and Emergency data is used from 2002-03 to 2010-11. Weekly situation reports are used from 2011-12 onwards.
3Attendance data are for all A&E department types, including major A&Es departments, single speciality departments, and minor injury units. In 2002-03, attendance data was first collected split by type, but not from walk-in centres (WiCs). Data from WiCs was first collected in 2003-04. Hence, data prior to 2003-04 is not comparable.