Emergency department care activity

Emergency department (ED) activity is measured by the number of presentations to the ED. Patients may arrive at the ED via ambulance or other emergency rescue service, private transport or by other means. 

Over time, the number of presentations to EDs have increased from 8.02 million in 2017–18 to 8.79 million in 2021–22. Presentation rates per 1,000 population have also grown in this period — from 321 presentations per 1,000 people in 2017–18 to 339 presentations in 2021–22.

This section presents information on the number of presentations to public hospital EDs in 2021–22 and in other recent years and provides information about how and why people accessed ED care.

 Information is also presented by:

  • state and territory
  • patient characteristics
  • triage category
  • hospital peer group.