NHS England logs 2.44 million A&E visits in September

NHS England said in an Oct. 8 news release that England's A&E units recorded 2.44 million attendances in September, while ambulance services handled 806,707 incidents, both September highs.

Evidence grade: Claim (no study cited) for NHS England’s warning about winter pressure; the activity counts come from national administrative data. Adult acute bed occupancy averaged 94.9% in September, compared with 94.3% in August 2026 and 94.7% last September.

NHS England’s National Medical Director Professor Frankie Swords said staff had increased planned care while responding to record September demand in urgent and emergency services.

“But now the focus is on the looming winter months ahead,” Swords said in the NHS England news release.

“Staff are already seeing the ominous early signs of pressure, with more patients coming to A&E with flu and other respiratory viruses than usual for this time of year, and unfortunately many people are still waiting longer than we would like them to,” Swords said.

The release said 4,738,824 planned treatments, procedures and appointments took place across June, July and August 2026, the highest summer total reported by NHS England. That work came alongside a rise in the overall waiting list to 7.4 million in August, up by 41,848 from July 2026.

Of those patient pathways, 65.2% had been waiting up to 18 weeks, NHS England said. The release also said cancer waiting-time measures for a confirmed diagnosis within 28 days and treatment starts under 31-day and 62-day standards improved in August compared with the same month last year.

Hospital flow remains a constraint. NHS England said 13,647 adult patients per day in September were in hospital beds despite being medically fit for discharge, a measure that affects how quickly hospitals can move patients through emergency and inpatient care.

Health and Social Care Secretary Yvette Cooper said in the release that the NHS was facing “summer pressures now as well as winter pressures.” She said eligible people should take up flu and other vaccinations to reduce preventable illness and help ease demand on services.

The figures do not show what the higher A&E attendances or ambulance incidents were associated with, and they do not forecast how severe winter pressure will be. NHS England said flu, respiratory syncytial virus and other respiratory infections were already circulating, and urged eligible people to seek flu, RSV, COVID-19 and other vaccinations through their GP or pharmacy.

NHS England also cited improving patient-experience measures, including three quarters of people contacting their GP saying it was easy to do so, almost nine in 10 pharmacy users reporting satisfaction, and eight in 10 community-service users rating their experience as good.

Source: news release, NHS England, Oct. 8, 2026

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