Release of Northern Ireland Inpatient, Day Case and Outpatient Hospital Statistics for 2024/25

Date published: 7 August 2025

These Hospital Statistics publications outline (a) the number of inpatient and day case admissions and (b) the number of attendances at consultant led outpatient services in Northern Ireland during 2024/25, analysed by HSC Trust, hospital and specialty.

Both publications are available online at:

https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/inpatient-and-day-case-activity

https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/outpatient-activity

Key Findings

Inpatient Activity

** Please note, this section does not include data from Northern Health and Social Care Trust, except for theatre cases and hospital births, because of their transition to encompass from 7 November 2024. This data is still in development. **

• During 2024/25 there were 440,282 inpatient and day case admissions to hospitals within the four Health and Social Care Trusts (HSCTs) in this report. This was a decrease of 3.5% (16,129) on the number of admissions during 2023/24 but an increase of 23.7% (84,268) on the number admitted during 2020/21.
• Of the 440,282 admissions, 46.6% (205,182) were inpatient admissions and 53.4% (235,100) were day cases.
• The day case rate for Acute programme of care has decreased from 82.7% in 2020/21 to 81.3% in 2024/25. The greatest change occurred between 2020/21 and 2021/22 when the day case rate increased from 82.7% to 84.2%.
• Between 2023/24 and 2024/25, the average number of available beds decreased by 3.2% (165.7) from 5,100.6 to 4,934.9.  
• The greatest decrease in average available beds was evident in the Acute programme of care, decreasing by 105.4 (2.9%) beds from 3,597.9 in 2023/24 to 3,492.5 in 2024/25.
• Occupancy rate in hospitals was 85.1% during 2024/25; this was an increase from 69.2% in 2020/21, and an increase from 83.6% in 2023/24.
• Average length of stay in hospitals has increased from 7.4 days in 2023/24 to 7.5 days in 2024/25. However, this may be because on encompass, transfers within an HSCT are no longer treated as a new admission, so there may be lower numbers of inpatients recorded, increasing the average length of stay.
• In 2024/25, there were 104,848 theatre cases across all HSC Trust hospitals in Northern Ireland. This was a decrease of 1.0% (1,074) compared with 105,922 theatre cases in 2023/24.
• The total number of hospital births in Northern Ireland decreased by 782 (3.9%) from 19,826 births in 2023/24 to 19,044 hospital births in 2024/25.

Inpatient and Day Case Activity in the Independent Sector

** Please note, this section does not include data from Northern Health and Social Care Trust, because of their transition to encompass from 7 November 2024. This data is still in development. **

1. In 2024/25, there were 19,573 admissions to hospitals within the four reported Health and Social Care Trusts in this report for an inpatient or day case procedure with an Independent Sector provider that was commissioned by the Health Service. This was a decrease of 5,209 (21.0%) when compared with 2023/24.
2. All Independent Sector admissions occurred within the Acute Programme of Care. Data on the number of HSC patients treated in the Independent Sector are not Accredited Official Statistics and have not been validated by the Department.

Outpatient Activity: Attendances

• In the 2024/25 reporting year, there were 1,370,901 attendances at a consultant-led outpatient service. This is a decrease of 10.4% since 2023/24 (1,529,726) and a decrease of 10.1% on 5 years ago (1,525,271).
• Of these attendances, 1,103,368 (80.5%) were face-to-face attendances at HSC hospitals, 210,922 (15.4%) were virtual attendances, 26,980 (2.0%) were attendances at Independent Sector hospitals and 29,631 (2.2%) were ward attendances.
• There has been a large increase in virtual appointments in recent years. The highest number and proportion of virtual appointments were recorded in 2020/21 (37.1% of 1,201,599 attendances). Since then, the number and proportion has decreased but still remains well above the level seen in 2019/20 (3.0% of 1,525,271 attendances).
• In addition to the 1,370,901 attendances at consultant-led outpatient services, there were 80,297 attendances at Integrated Clinical Assessment and Treatment Services.

Outpatient Activity: Missed Appointments & Cancellations

• Data on missed and cancelled appointments is currently only collected by the Department for face-to-face (excluding ward attendances and Independent Sector attendances) and virtual appointments.
• In the 2024/25 reporting year, patients did not attend 101,514 face-to-face appointments and 9,770 virtual appointments. The combined DNA rate was 7.8%, a similar rate to that seen over the past 5 years.
• In the 2024/25 reporting year, hospitals cancelled 160,205 face-to-face appointments and 21,424 virtual appointments. The combined hospital cancellation rate was 12.1%. This is a decrease from a rate of 16.9% observed in 2020/21.
• In the 2024/25 reporting year, patients cancelled 124,058 face-to-face appointments and 4,974 virtual appointments. The combined CNA rate was 8.9%. This is an increase on the rates observed in 2020/21 (6.0%) and 2021/22 (8.7%) but remains below the levels seen between 2015/16 and 2019/20 (ranging from 11.0% to 11.5%).
• Since 2015/16, the virtual CNA rate has been consistently much lower than the face-to-face CNA rate, ranging from 1.0% in 2019/20 to 3.0% in 2022/23.