What do the numbers say about emergency readmissions to hospital?
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Healthwatch England asked hospital trusts across England for a day-by-day breakdown of their emergency readmissions data for each of the last five years.
The data shows that for 2016/17 there were a total 529,318 emergency readmissions reported by 84 hospital trusts. The top line figures from trusts that gave us data for all years between 2012/13 and 2016/17 (72 respondents) show that:
- The number of emergency readmissions has risen over the last five years by 22.8%, from 372,805 to 457,880.
- The number of emergency readmissions within 24 hours of discharge has risen by 29.2%, from 49,529 to 63,964.
- The number of readmissions within 48 hours has risen by 27%, from 77,927 to 98,955.
- Readmissions within 48 hours account for more than 1 in 5 (21.61%) of the total.