Northern Ireland Hospital Statistics: Urgent and Emergency Care (2024/25)

Date published: 9 July 2025

The statistical bulletin presents information on the total activity at EDs in Northern Ireland during 2024/25, including information on new, unplanned, and planned review attendances, waiting times at EDs, ambulance response times, calls and incidents.

The Northern Ireland Hospital Statistics: Urgent and Emergency Care (2024/25) publication is the first in the series of three 'Hospital Statistics' statistical publications due for release in the coming months, with the further two detailing information on inpatient activity and outpatient activity.

This information release is published on the Departmental website here.

Key Points

Latest Position (2024/25)

• During 2024/25, 802,495 patients attended all urgent and emergency care services; 764,720 (new and unplanned review) patients attended an ED and 190,462 calls / attendances were received by PhoneFirst and Urgent Care Centre services, of which, 94,700 (49.7%) resulted in the patient being referred to an ED, whilst 95,762 patients did not get referred to an ED.
• During 2024/25, 35.6% of new and unplanned review attendances at Type 1 EDs were treated and discharged, or admitted, within 4 hours of their arrival, compared with 82.8% at Type 2 departments, and 93.0% at Type 3 departments.
• Over one in six (17.4%, 132,741) of the 764,720 new and unplanned review attendances at EDs waited longer than 12 hours to be either treated and discharged home, or admitted.
• Over three fifths (60.5%) of patients attending EDs in 2024/25 commenced their treatment within 2 hours of being triaged.
• The NIAS Category 1 mean (8 minutes) target and 90th percentile target (15 minutes) were not achieved in any month during 2024/25.
• The NIAS Category 1T mean (19 minutes) target was achieved in each month during 2024/25, whilst the 90^th percentile (30 minutes) target was also achieved in each month with the exception of September to December 2024, and January 2025.

Comparison with Previous Year (2023/24 - 2024/25)

• Since 2023/24, the number of new and unplanned review attendances at EDs increased by 6,075 (0.8%), from 758,645 to 764,720 in 2024/25.
• Whilst the number of attendances increased slightly between 2023/24 and 2024/25 (6,075), performance against the 4 hour waiting times target decreased from 47.1% to 45.5%.
• The number of patients spending over 12 hours in an ED increased in 2024/25 (132,741) compared with 2023/24 (121,043).

Five Year Trends (2020/21 - 2024/25)

• During the last five years since the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of ED attendances (new and unplanned reviews) increased by 171,351 (28.9%), from 593,369 in 2020/21 to 764,720 in 2024/25.
• Whilst the number of attendances increased between 2020/21 and 2024/25, performance against the 4 hour waiting time target declined from 65.0% to 45.5% in 2024/25.
• Following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020/21, the number of patients spending over 12 hours in an ED increased markedly from 37,884 to 132,741 in 2024/25, with the Royal Victoria reporting the most notable increase during this period (6,143 to 24,955).
• Since 2020/21, the proportion of attendances referred by a GP decreased from 17.8% to 14.0% in 2024/25.

The information release is published on the Departmental website at:

https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/emergency-care-and-ambulance-statistics