Emergency department presentations

Emergency departments (EDs) are an essential component of Australia’s health care system. Many of Australia’s public hospitals have purpose-built EDs, staffed 24 hours a day, providing care for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) who require urgent medical, surgical or other attention.

ED presentations may have a symptom, rather than the underlying condition or cause, listed as the diagnosis (AIHW 2025). The classifications of diagnosis that can be recorded for an ED presentation differs from those used in admitted hospitalisations. For these reasons this section reports on presentations related to both chronic and acute kidney disease. 

In 2024–25, there were around 52,300 ED presentations with a principal diagnosis related to kidney disease. Of these:

  • 29,900 (57%) were due to glomerular diseases, kidney tubulo-interstitial diseases and chronic kidney failure
  • 17, 700 (34%) were due to acute kidney failure
  • 2,500 (4.8%) were due to other disorders of kidney and ureter 
  • 2,300 (4.4%) were due to unspecified kidney failure
  • 296 (0.5%) were due to hypertensive kidney disease.

Reference

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2025) Care provided in emergency departments, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 5 May 2026. 

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