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Repeat patients increase pressure on A&E

Almost 12,000 people visited A&E more than 10 times last year Credit: Vhris Radburn/PA Wire

A small group of NHS patients are adding to pressures on accident and emergency departments by going to casualty dozens of times a year, according to an investigation by the BBC.

Figures obtained under freedom of information legislation showed that almost 12,000 people made more than 10 visits to the same A&E unit in 2012/13, with just over 150 attending on more than 50 occasions.

In the most extreme cases, one patient at Luton and Dunstable Hospital went to casualty 234 times over the course of the year, while another person went to Sheffield's Northern General 223 times.