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Millions of patients are visiting emergency departments across England with minor illnesses, new figures show.
Analysis shows that over five years, A&E staff have treated nearly 1.9 million headache cases.
Between 2020/21 and 2024/25, almost 1.4 million people attended hospital for coughs and 1.2 million people sought help for sore throats.
According to analysis by the Press Association, earaches are responsible for an additional 1 million emergency department visits. Other complaints included nearly 69,000 cases of nasal congestion, 4,200 cases of hiccups and 290,000 cases of constipation.
2020/21 was the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, when many patients avoided hospitals.
The data show that the number of emergency room visits for certain medical emergencies, such as cardiac arrest, has remained relatively stable during and after the pandemic.
For example, the number of people attending hospital for cardiac arrest in 2020/21 was 10,293, compared with 10,744 in 2024/25.
The number of hip fractures diagnosed in A&E was 43,646 in 2020/21 and 43,326 in 2024/25.
For other cases, there has been a steady increase in hospital visits starting after the pandemic ended and continuing in the years that followed.
Some 44,000 “cough” cases were dealt with in 2020/21, with the number rising year on year to reach 435,728 cases in 2024/25, an increase of almost tenfold.
In 2020/21, there were 59,120 A&E visits with a chief complaint of diarrhea, increasing year by year, reaching 143,591 in 2024/25.
The number of doctor visits for constipation increased from 40,962 to 70,933, for back pain from 211,266 to 396,724, for nausea from 9,795 to 20,516, and for hiccups from 587 to 1,093.
PA analysis shows medics noted that 2.2 million A&E attendances in 2024/25 “did nothing abnormal”, while more than half a million patients left before they were first diagnosed.
Health officials have warned a “wave” of winter illnesses will hit the NHS.
NHS England said this month that A&Es were facing a high number of “unnecessary” admissions as they try to direct people to appropriate help in certain situations.
NHS England said last winter a large number of patients sought help for a variety of conditions that could have been dealt with by a GP or pharmacist.
Rory Deighton, director of acute and community care at NHS Confederation, said: “The NHS fully supports the government’s ambition to move more care into homes, a shift that will play a vital role in helping patients manage their conditions more effectively without having to go to hospital.”
Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said: “The fact that patients with relatively simple conditions such as earaches are choosing to go to A&E for help exposes how we are not providing enough opportunities for people to access convenient, responsive services closer to home so they can get the help they need immediately.”
“Our New Year’s resolution is to see community healthcare ‘turbocharged’, creating more primary care appointments in communities and GP surgeries to improve patient satisfaction on the NHS and reduce pressure on busy A&Es.”
Dr Ian Higginson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said that while some cases “may appear to be mild, some of the patients described may be seriously ill”.
He continued: “However, as these data show, people are coming to our emergency departments (EDs) with problems that we would not traditionally consider ‘urgent’ and requiring urgent care.
“This is a symptom of a health care system that is not functioning as it was designed to.
“Like our emergency departments, our colleagues in primary and community services are at full capacity when services are open, but when patients need these services, these services are often not open.
“The system has also become unnecessarily complex and can be difficult for patients to figure out.
“People come to the emergency room if they can’t access services or are unsure if other services are available to help them.”
Professor Victoria Zorzio Brown, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said: “We need better, clearer systems to help patients navigate the NHS and get to the right place at the first time, and better general practice resources so that we can reduce pressure on the whole health service.”
Henry Gregg, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, said: “Millions of hours are spent waiting in A&Es to treat minor problems that could be conveniently treated in community pharmacies.
“Pharmacists are highly trained healthcare professionals who can now provide prescription medicines on the NHS for a range of common conditions without the need for an appointment with a GP.”
A spokesman for NHS England said: “When patients have a minor illness, the last place they want to be is a busy A&E – which is why this winter NHS staff are working hard to expand the number of care routes so patients can get fast, convenient care closer to them.”
“We have launched a campaign urging people to use a range of alternatives to A&E to get the help they need where it’s most appropriate – whether that’s online, over the phone or face-to-face.
“As always, the public should use A&E and 999 for life-threatening situations and serious injuries, and for non-life-threatening care call NHS 111 or use 111 online, which can direct you to the most appropriate place – whether that’s your local pharmacy, appointment center or clinical self-help advice.”
NHS officials will reveal how hospitals are coping with winter pressures when they release the latest winter statistics for Health Services England.