Northern Ireland Hospital Statistics: Urgent and Emergency Care (2024/25)
Date published:
The Department of Health today published annual statistics on activity and waiting times at emergency care departments (ED), in Northern Ireland during the year ending 31st March 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 90th 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
Notes to editors:
- All information presented in this publication has been provided by HSC Trusts or downloaded by Hospital Waits Information Branch (HWIB) within an agreed timescale and validated and quality assured by HIB prior to release. At the end of each financial year HWIB verify with HSC Trusts that the information downloaded / submitted during the year is consistent and up to date. Further information can be found in Technical Notes and Appendices 5, 6 & 7 of the Hospital Statistics: Urgent and Emergency Care publication.
- Information which presents a summary of the emergency care clinical quality indicators for Northern Ireland has also been included in this release. This information is not Accredited Official Statistics but is included to provide a more comprehensive and balanced view of the care delivered by EDs and reflects the experience of patients and the timeliness of the care they receive. Please note that information on source of referral, method of arrival and destination on discharge from ED are not accredited official statistics but are provided to give a more comprehensive overview of activity at EDs across Northern Ireland. The recording of these fields following an ED attendance are based on the source of arrival, method of arrival and discharge destination fields that are recorded on the ED patient record system, and then mapped by DoH to one of the agreed ED regional codes, which includes source of referral, method of arrival and destination on discharge codes. The mapping of these codes from the new Encompass system are currently under review
- Figures in this report for Belfast, Northern and South Eastern HSC Trusts sourced from the encompass system are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’.
- Figures in this report sourced from NIAS are considered to ‘official statistics in development’.
- Readers are advised to be cautious when making direct comparisons between Northern Ireland and other UK Jurisdictions as waiting times may not be measured in a comparable manner. It should also be noted that the way in which emergency care services are delivered differs between UK jurisdictions. This means that the number and types of patients included in the figures may differ between countries. In particular, the 12 hour waiting time information published by England and Northern Ireland is not equivalent and should not be compared. Further information on comparability between Northern Ireland and other UK Jurisdictions is detailed in Appendix 5 of this statistical publication.
- There are three separate categories of emergency care facility included in this publication: Type 1 Department A consultant led 24 hour service with full resuscitation facilities and designated accommodation for the reception of emergency care patients. Type 2 Department A consultant led mono specialty emergency care service (e.g. ophthalmology, dental) with designated accommodation for the reception of patients.Type 3 Department Other type of ED/minor injury activity with designated accommodation for the reception of emergency care patients. The department may be doctor led, general practitioner led or nurse led and treats at least minor injuries and illnesses and can be routinely accessed without appointment. A service mainly or entirely appointment based (for example a GP Practice or Out-Patient Clinic) is excluded even though it may treat a number of patients with minor illness or injury. Includes Urgent Treatment Centres.
- The draft Ministerial targets for emergency care waiting times during 2024/25 stated that: “95% of patients attending any Type 1, 2 or 3 Emergency Department should be either treated and discharged home, or admitted, within four hours of their arrival in the Department; and no patient attending any Emergency Department should wait longer than 12 hours”. “[…], at least 80% of patients to have commenced treatment, following triage, within 2 hours.”
- Please note, patients with lower acuity can attend more appropriate services available at Minor Injury Units (MIU) and avoid potentially longer attendances at a Type 1 Emergency Department (ED). Prior to the introduction of MIUs, these patients would have otherwise attended a Type 1 ED and would have generally been discharged within 4 hours. As such, this will result in an increase to the percentage of patients at Type 1 EDs who wait longer than 4 hours.
- Information on the new urgent care services; (i) PhoneFirst and (ii) Urgent Care Centres, introduced in late 2020 as part of the ‘No More Silos’ action plan, are included in this statistical report. These services assess patients’ needs before arrival at an ED, and ensure they receive the right care, at the right time, and in the right place, outside ED if appropriate. The number of patients contacting / attending these urgent care services are reported, alongside those attending an ED, to provide readers with a comprehensive view of urgent and emergency care services in Northern Ireland.
- NIAS implemented a new Clinical Response Model (CRM) on 12th November 2019. Information provided by NIAS from this date is not comparable to the previous CRM.
- The new call categories and targets are as follows.
Call Category
Call Definition
Mean Target
90th Percentile Target
Category 2 999 Immediately life threatening 8 minutes
15 minutes
Category 1 - Transport 999 Immediately life threatening 19 minutes
30 minutes
Category 2 999 Emergency – potentially serious incidents 18 minutes
40 minutes
Category 3 Urgent Problem 120 minutes
Category 4 Less urgent problem 180 minutes
- Figures incorporate all returns and amendments received up to 24th June 2025. Further information on Emergency Care Statistics is available from: Hospital Waits Information Branch, Department of Health, Annexe 2, Castle Buildings, Stormont, BT4 3SQ Tel: 028 90 522504 Fax: 028 90 523288 Email: statistics@health-ni.gov.uk Internet: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/emergency-care-and-ambulance-statistics
- The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.