Hospital care discrepancies found

2:32am Friday 29th August 2008

Patients may have a vastly different experience of NHS hospital care depending on whether they live in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, it has been reported.

An analysis for the Health Service Journal (HSJ) found discrepancies in the number of patients admitted and discharged on the same day and in the numbers of people attending A&E.

But Dr Nick Goodwin, from the King's Fund health think-tank, said the data should be interpreted with caution as it is collected differently in each area. He also warned that the data did not take in to account existing health inequalities or the infrastructure in place before different policies were adopted by each government.

The HSJ data showed a 37% increase in A&E attendances in England between 2004 and 2007. In the three other nations, the rate rose by no more than 3%.

The data showed the rate of emergency admissions in 2007 in Wales was one in 10 and continues to rise. Wales had the lowest rate of elective admissions - planned operations - but the highest rate of emergency admissions.

The HSJ said there had been a 43% rise in the proportion of emergency admissions discharged on the same day in England between 2004 and 2007. Meanwhile, in Wales the rise was 34% and 12% in Northern Ireland but in Scotland it fell by 2%. In Northern Ireland, 12% of emergency admissions were discharged in under a day compared with 25% in England.

Patients discharged in England were 37% more likely to require emergency readmission within 28 days than in Northern Ireland, the data also showed.

There were 193 elective admissions per 1,000 population in Northern Ireland in 2007 - 51% higher than the rate in Wales.

The healthcare information providers CHKS analysed statistics from the four nations for the HSJ. Differences included the fact that patients having an elective operation in England were 40% more likely to be treated as a day case than patients in Scotland.

Welsh residents were 20% more likely to be admitted to hospital as an emergency than elsewhere.

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