Editorials

The continuing rise in emergency admissions

Emergency admissions in Britain are continuing to rise.¹ The highly publicised bed crisis this winter and a number of national meetings have underlined concern over the lack of explanations and frustration at the lack of control. In Scotland, emergency admissions increased by 45% between 1981 and 1994 (fig 1). This represented an annual increase of about 3%, rising to over 5% in 1993 and 1994,² and probably in 1995. Even steeper increases have been reported by individual hospitals throughout Britain.^{1 2} In stark contrast, elective admissions have increased by only 1% a year.³ Emergency hospital admissions account for about 40% of total acute bed use in the NHS.²

Why is this rise occurring? Potential explanations need to account for its generality and persistence. Hospital admissions have actually been increasing for some four decades.^{1 3} Some recent inflation . . . [Full text of this article]

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