ARE THERE MORE EMERGENCIES?

摘要

Last winter saw a leap in the proportion of people waiting longer than 4 hours to be seen by a doctor in UK accident and emergency departments. But A&E departments have been under strain for years. Are attendance numbers really increasing? It's complicated, says John Appleby, chief economist at UK health charity The King's Fund. Between 1989 and 2004, the number of people visiting A&E departments stuck at a more or less steady 14 million a year.