Nearly 200 people attended Rotherham Hospital's A&E more than ten times in a year

NEARLY 200 people attended Rotherham Hospital's accident and emergency department more than ten times in a year costing the NHS thousands of pounds, new figures have shown.

A breakdown of NHS hospital data by the healthcare analysis company Dr Foster found 183 people visited Rotherham Hospital's A&E department ten or more times between June 2017 and May last year.

The data, broken down per area of South Yorkshire, included people who were over the age of 11 and attended on a ‘non-planned follow-up’ visit.

Rotherham NHS bosses said they have measures in place to try and reduce this figure.

Researchers found that high intensity users (HIUs) were more likely to live in more deprived areas, be aged 21 to 31 and, visit A&E between 8pm and 6am and the most attended day was a Monday.

The data also showed the most common condition patients were admitted to hospital with was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but also chest and abdominal pain, poisoning by drugs, medications and psychotropic agents and alcohol-related disorders.

National figures show 5,000 HIU patients cost the NHS £53 million – around £10,600 per person.

The report said: “As well as generating high healthcare costs, HIUs also increase the risk of overcrowding in emergency departments, affecting the safety and care that can be offered to other patients.

“This relatively small proportion of patients can, therefore, have a significant impact on limited NHS resources and, as such, presents an opportunity to reduce the strain on emergency services.

“It is also important to understand why high intensity users are visiting A&E so frequently, their needs are potentially not being addressed elsewhere in the system one way or another, whatever the root cause of their visits.”

Dr David Clitherow, local GP and GP lead for Urgent Care and NHS Rotherham CCG, said: “We are working closely across health and care services in Rotherham to help ensure all of our patients have access to the care and support they need in a timely manner.

“We are developing dedicated management plans for some of the most frequent attendees to our Emergency Department that will focus on better, alternative care for the individual, including services in the local community and providing direct access to specialist care workers.

“In 2018/19, we have seen a 70 per cent reduction in those frequently attending with a mental health need by implementing a successful mental health liaison service in our Urgent and Emergency Care Centre.”