Millions of patients are turning to overcrowded hospital emergency departments for minor health issues like blocked noses, hiccups, and headaches, as the crisis in securing a GP appointment deepens, health leaders have warned.
Staggering Numbers Reveal Scale of Misplaced Demand
Fresh analysis of NHS data reveals the immense pressure on Accident and Emergency units from conditions that should be treated elsewhere. Over the past five years, A&E medics in England dealt with almost 1.9 million cases where the chief complaint was a headache.
The figures, compiled by the PA news agency, show a further 1.4 million attendances were for a cough and 1.2 million were for a sore throat. Other reasons included one million visits for earache, 290,000 for constipation, and even 69,000 for a blocked nose and 4,200 for hiccups.
The data indicates a sharp annual rise in such attendances. Cases where a sore throat was the main issue jumped by 77% between 2021/22 and 2022/23. Attendances for a cough soared nearly tenfold from 44,000 in 2020/21 to 435,728 in 2024/25.
A System Under 'Persistent Strain'
Health service bosses directly link this trend to the severe and ongoing pressures on primary care. With patients routinely facing waits of more than a week to see a GP, many feel they have no alternative but to go to A&E.
Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, stated: 'Patients choosing to attend A&E for help with relatively simple conditions like earache lays bare a failure to give people enough access to convenient, responsive services closer to home.'
He called for neighbourhood healthcare to be 'turbocharged' to create more primary care appointments and ease the burden on emergency units. The latest official data underscores the problem: while there were 27.8 million GP appointments in July, three in ten patients waited over a week. Less than half were seen the same day.
Consequences for Emergency Care and Patient Safety
This misplaced demand has serious knock-on effects. In 2024/25, medics noted that 'no abnormality was detected' in 2.2 million A&E attendances, and over half a million patients left before receiving an initial diagnosis.
Dr Ian Higginson, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, explained: 'This is a symptom of the healthcare system not working as it was designed to... If people are unable to access services, or they are unsure of other services available to help them, they will come to ED.'
The RCEM has long warned that difficulties seeing a GP fuel a crisis in emergency departments. A lack of family doctors, with some responsible for up to 2,600 patients, is a key factor. Many GPs are retiring early or leaving due to unsustainable workloads, with some reportedly conducting nearly 60 appointments a day against a safe limit of 25.
Call for Clearer Pathways and More Resources
Professor Victoria Tzortziou Brown, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, emphasised the need for 'better, clearer systems to help patients navigate the NHS and get to the right place first time, and better resourced general practice.'
An NHS England spokesperson urged the public to use alternatives like pharmacies, NHS 111 online, or walk-in centres for non-life-threatening care. 'The last place a patient wants to be when they have a minor illness is a busy A&E,' they said.
The situation compounds wider NHS challenges, including a record waiting list of 7.68 million and plummeting patient satisfaction with GP services. The government's 2019 pledge to recruit 6,000 more GPs has fallen short, with only 2,000 added since.
