NHS Providers said the strain on primary care services, including GPs and dentists, means patients often resort to A&E.
A&E departments are seeing a rise in people attending with sore throats, insomnia, coughs and earache
Patients going to A&E with coughs rose 47% from 219,388 to 322,500, while attendances for nosebleeds rose by a fifth from 47,285 cases to 56,546. “This could ease pressure on emergency departments, whose priority is to deliver urgent care for those most in need. “Our communities need good access to healthcare. This requires an adequately resourced and staffed system with sufficient capacity at every level.
“One change which certainly would have an impact is greater clinical input into the NHS 111 service to help direct patients to the right care for them – be that in the community or, when necessary, at hospital. “While some of the presentations to A&E may not be indicative of a medical ‘emergency’, conditions such as fevers – which saw a 44% increase in admissions over the last year – can be symptomatic of something more serious that needs the skill and expertise of a medical professional to diagnose and treat.
Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said long waiting lists mean patients will often be unable to tolerate symptoms “necessitating them to access urgent and emergency care”.
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