NHS Digital has published its annual report on hospital admission in NHS hospitals in England.

Information is included on causes of admissions, diagnoses on admission, procedures carried out, patient demographics, regional or organisational breakdowns and changes over time.

The data counts admissions not individual patients, as the same person could be admitted several times.

The report uses data from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)3.

The data shows that there were 19.6 million Finished Consultant Episodes (FCE), an increase of 21.4 per cent compared to 2020-21.

There were 16 million Finished Admission Episodes (FAE) which is an increase of 24.7 per cent compared to 2020-2021.

Both of these figures are still below pre-pandemic levels.