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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Rachel Hall

Emergency pneumonia cases surge to half a million a year in England

An ambulance in front of an A&E department
Pneumonia is the single biggest cause of emergency admissions. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

The number of people requiring emergency care for pneumonia has risen by a quarter over two years to reach more than half a million cases, new figures show, amid warnings that preventable cases are adding pressure on overstretched A&E departments.

Analysis of the most recent NHS England data from between April 2024 and March 2025 found that there were 579,475 cases of pneumonia requiring emergency hospitalisation, and this was likely to have risen further since, according to the charity Asthma + Lung UK. There were 461,995 cases between April 2022 and March 2023.

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