THE number of patients admitted to hospitals in Bradford district rose by 2.5 per cent last year, according to a new report.

In 2013/14, there were 191,482 admissions to hospitals across the area's three Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) - compared with 186,819 in 2012/13.

The figures have been published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

The majority of the increase can be accounted for at Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven CCG, where there were 3,744 more patient admissions in 2013/14 (54,486) than in 2012/13 (50,742).

Bradford Districts CCG dealt with 928 more patients in 2013/14 than in 2012/13 (106,463 compared with 105,535), while Bradford City CCG took in nine fewer - 30,533 in 2013/14 compared with 30,542 in 2012/13.

In Bradford City and Bradford District, the highest number of patient admissions in 2013/14 were in the 25 to 29 years age-group.

A total of 3,473 were admitted in Bradford City, and 8,042 in Bradford District. The most common in Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven was the 65 to 69 age-group.

The increase in Bradford is more than the national average of 2.1 per cent. Across the country in 2013/14 hospitals dealt with 15.5 million admissions, compared with 15.1 million the year before.

A spokesman for NHS Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group said: “A detailed analysis of the figures to separate the number of emergency admissions from A&E and the number of planned admissions for operations will need to take place to ensure the figures are in line with our plans to deliver the national targets, which we believe we are achieving.”

A NHS Bradford City and NHS Bradford Districts CCGs spokesman said: "We are working closely with all the organisations that provide and commission health and social care services in the Bradford district to provide more care in communities and prevent avoidable hospital stays for patients, especially those with long-term conditions such as diabetes, asthma, heart problems and chronic pulmonary disease (COPD) – who frequently end up in hospital.

"With nationally increasing demands on healthcare services and an ageing population, it is vital that we improve how we design services around the needs of patients. There are still too many patients being admitted to hospital in emergency situations when well-coordinated community services could care for them effectively in their own home.

"However, despite an increase in the number of emergency admissions in Bradford Districts, we are pleased to see a slight reduction in these admissions for City and that more planned procedures have taken place.

"The district-wide urgent and emergency care strategy underpins our collective vision to provide more responsive, high quality services that are joined with other health and social care services: to improve the way people access and experience services."