Homeless people’s A&E visits treble in seven years

The number of visits to hospital emergency departments by homeless people in England has almost trebled in seven years, an investigation by the BMA shows.1

The analysis found that the number of recorded visits to emergency departments by patients classed as having no fixed address rose from 11 305 in 2010-11 to 31 924 in 2017-18. The BMA also found that homeless patients were presenting with increasingly complex physical and mental health conditions. It said that cuts to health and social care budgets were driving the problem.

Among the hospital trusts with the …