The number of admissions has increased year-on-year from 2000 to 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital admission dropped in 2020/21. In 2023/24 there were around 17.6 million admissions* to NHS hospitals in England, showing that admission numbers have reached and exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

This publication reports on Admitted Patient Care activity in England for the financial year 2022-23. This report includes but is not limited to analysis of hospital episodes by patient demographics, diagnoses, external causes/injuries, operations, bed days, admission method, time waited, specialty, provider level analysis and Adult Critical Care (ACC). It describes NHS Admitted Patient Care Activity, Adult Critical Care activity and performance in hospitals in England. The purpose of this publication is to inform and support strategic and policy-led processes for the benefit of patient care and may also be of interest to researchers, journalists and members of the public interested in NHS hospital activity in England. The data sources for this publication are Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). It contains final data and replaces the provisional data that are released each month. HES contains records of all admissions, appointments and attendances for patients at NHS hospitals in England. The HES data used in this publication are called 'Finished Consultant Episodes', and each episode relates to a period of care for a patient under a single consultant at a single hospital. Therefore, this report counts the number of episodes of care for admitted patients rather than the number of patients. This publication shows the number of episodes during the period, with breakdowns including by patient's age, gender, diagnosis, procedure involved and by provider. Please send queries or feedback via email to enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk. Author: Secondary Care Open Data and Publications, NHS England. Lead Analyst: Emily Michelmore

In the period from 2010 to 2022, the average length of hospital stay for acute care in the United Kingdom (UK) has not changed significantly. In 2010, the average length of stay in hospital was *** days, by 2022 it was *** days after remaining at six days in intervening years. High amount of admissions to hospital There were almost *** million admissions to hospital between January and March 2018 in England. This quarterly figure of admissions has remained fairly consistent since 2014. The busiest hospital trust in England by admissions in the year 2017/18 was the Manchester University Hospitals Foundation Trust with almost *** thousand admissions. Situation in Accident and Emergency In the third quarter of 2017/18, A&E in England received over six million attendees. The number of attendances has been creeping upwards since 2012. *** percent of people attending A&E in the last year were diagnosed with a dislocation, fracture, joint injury or amputation, followed by *** percent with a respiratory condition.

This dataset consists of information on hospital admissions relating to being obese based on patient's gender and age. Data is taken from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) databank produced by NHS Digital.

This dataset provides counts of Finished Admission Episodes (FAE) at MSOA level and higher geographies. The information covers the following specified diagnosis, cause and operative procedures: 1) Coronary Heart Disease; 2) Cerbrovascular Disease (including Stroke); 3) Cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer); 4) Falls (basic accidental falls); 5) Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) and Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) (Heart); 6) Hip Replacement; 7) Knee Replacement; 8) Cataracts. Source: The Information Centre for health and social care (IC) Publisher: Neighbourhood Statistics Geographies: Local Authority District (LAD), Government Office Region (GOR), National Geographic coverage: England Time coverage: 2004/05 to 2007/08 Type of data: Administrative data

On January 12, 2021, over 4.5 thousand individuals in the UK were admitted to hospital with coronavirus (COVID-19), the highest single amount since the start of the pandemic. The daily hospital cases started to rise significantly at the end of 2020 and into January 2021, however since then the number of hospitalizations fell dramatically as the UK managed to vaccinate millions against COVID-19. Overall, since the pandemic started around 994 thousand people in the UK have been hospitalized with the virus.

The total number of cases in the UK can be found here. For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

In 2015/16 there were approximately 2.36 million adults admitted to hospital in England due to an illness caused by smoking. By 2022/23 the number of hospital admissions as a result of smoking had increased to approximately 2.54 million, the largest number during the provided time period. Smoking prevalence across age groups in England In England in 2022, 21 percent of men and 15 percent of women aged between 25 and 34 years were current smokers. This is the highest share of male smokers across the age groups, while the age group of 45 to 54 years had the second-largest proportion of female smokers at 18 percent. Situation north of the border In Scotland, the share of regular smokers was quite evenly distributed among all ages, except for those aged over 75 years who were smoking less. In 2023, 16 percent of men and 13 percent of women overall in Scotland were current smokers. 

This dataset consists of information on hospital admissions relating to being obese based on geographical distribution. Data is taken from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) databank produced by NHS Digital.

Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) is a data warehouse containing records of all patients admitted to NHS hospitals in England. It contains details of every hospital stay in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector. The Kennedy report recommended that HES should be "supported as a major national resource for the monitoring of a range of healthcare outcomes". Note: (17/11/2014) An update to the Hospital Episode Statistics: Admitted Patient Care 2010-11 provider level analysis has been published. Table G data for the Yorkshire and Humber SHA and the providers within it has been corrected.

The number of hospital beds in the United Kingdom has undergone a decline since the year 2000. Whereas in 2000, there were around 240 thousand beds in the UK, by 2020 this figure was approximately 163 thousand. This means over this period there were over 80 thousand fewer hospital beds in the UK. However in the recent years since 2020, the number of hospital beds have been increasing, the first time in the recorded time period.

Fewer beds but admissions are still high

There were almost 16.4 million admissions to hospital between April 2022 to March 2023 in England. The number of admissions has recovered somewhat since the drop in year 2020/21. The busiest hospital trust in England by admissions in the year 2022/23 was the University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust with over 333 thousand admissions. The average length of stay in hospitals in the UK in 2021 for acute care was seven days.

Accident and Emergency

In the first quarter of 2023/24, A&E in England received around 6.5 million attendees. The number of attendances has been creeping upwards since 2012. Around 2.4 percent of people attending A&E in the last year were diagnosed with an upper respiratory condition, followed by 1.8 percent with a lower respiratory tract infection.

Public Health England (PHE) has published the Local Alcohol Profiles for England (LAPE) data update for May 2016.

The LAPE interactive tool presents data for 25 alcohol-related indicators and allows users to view and analyse data in a user-friendly format. The http://www.lape.org.uk" class="govuk-link">LAPE website also provides links to further supporting and relevant information to aid understanding of alcohol-related harm in a local population.

http://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/local-alcohol-profiles" class="govuk-link">View the Local Alcohol Profiles for England data tool

This latest data release includes:

• the addition of 2014 to 2015 data to the alcohol-related hospital admission indicators
• 3 new indicators showing alcohol-related admissions by age
• a new indicator relating to alcohol-related cancer incidence

The number of finished and unfinished continuous inpatient spells (CIPS) for patients of all ages with an emergency method of admission and with any of the following primary diagnoses - Ear, nose and throat infections, Kidney / urinary tract infections, Heart failure Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Office for National Statistics (ONS) Publisher: Information Centre (IC) - Clinical and Health Outcomes Knowledge Base Geographies: Local Authority District (LAD), Government Office Region (GOR), National, Strategic Health Authority (SHA) Geographic coverage: England Time coverage: 2002/03 to 2007/08 Type of data: Administrative data

Counts and rates of deaths and hospital admissions associated with temperature for England and Wales from 2001 to 2020.

In 2022/23, there were approximately ***** thousand hospital admissions for stroke in the United Kingdom, a slight decrease from the preceding year. Since 2011/12, the annual admissions as a result of strokes in the UK has slightly increased.

The number of finished and unfinished continuous inpatient spells (CIPS) for patients of all ages with an emergency method of admission and with any of the following primary diagnoses 1) Intracerebral haemorrhage 2) Other non-traumatic intracranial haemorrhage 3) Cerebral infarction 4) Stroke, not specified as haemorrhage or infarction Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Office for National Statistics (ONS) Publisher: Information Centre (IC) - Clinical and Health Outcomes Knowledge Base Geographies: Local Authority District (LAD), Government Office Region (GOR), National, Strategic Health Authority (SHA) Geographic coverage: England Time coverage: 2002/03 to 2007/08 Type of data: Administrative data

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) is a database containing details of all admissions, A and E attendances and outpatient appointments at NHS hospitals in England.

Initially this data is collected during a patient's time at hospital as part of the Commissioning Data Set (CDS). This is submitted to NHS Digital for processing and is returned to healthcare providers as the Secondary Uses Service (SUS) data set and includes information relating to payment for activity undertaken. It allows hospitals to be paid for the care they deliver.

This same data can also be processed and used for non-clinical purposes, such as research and planning health services. Because these uses are not to do with direct patient care, they are called 'secondary uses'. This is the HES data set.

HES data covers all NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England, including:

• private patients treated in NHS hospitals
• patients resident outside of England
• care delivered by treatment centres (including those in the independent sector) funded by the NHS

Each HES record contains a wide range of information about an individual patient admitted to an NHS hospital, including:

• clinical information about diagnoses and operations
• patient information, such as age group, gender and ethnicity
• administrative information, such as dates and methods of admission and discharge
• geographical information such as where patients are treated and the area where they live

We apply a strict statistical disclosure control in accordance with the NHS Digital protocol, to all published HES data. This suppresses small numbers to stop people identifying themselves and others, to ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained.

Timescales for dissemination can be found under 'Our Service Levels' at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/services/data-access-request-service-dars/data-access-request-service-dars-process

Indirectly age and sex standardised rates.