A major sporting event does not necessarily mean an increased workload foraccident and emergency departments

Aim-To determine whether there were any changes in attendance at accident a nd emergency departments that could be related to international football ma tches (Euro96 tournament). Method-Fourteen accident and emergency departments (seven adjacent to and s even distant from a Euro96 venue) provided their daily attendance figures f or a nine week period: three weeks before, during, and after the tournament . The relation between daily attendance rates and Euro96 football matches w as assessed using a generalised linear model and analysis of variance. The model took into account underlying trends in attendance rates including day of the week. Results-The 14 hospitals contributed 172 366 attendances (mean number of da ily attendances 195). No association was shown between the number of attend ances at accident and emergency departments and the day of the football mat ch, whether the departments were near to or distant from stadia or the occu rrence of a home nation match. The only observed independent predictors of variation were day of the week and week of the year. Attendance rates were significantly higher on Sunday and/or Monday; Monday was about 9% busier th an the daily average. Increasing attendance was observed over time for 86% of the hospitals. Conclusion-Large sports tournaments do not increase the number of patients attending accident and emergency departments. Special measures are not requ ired for major sporting events over and above the capacity of an accident a nd emergency department to increase its throughput on other days.