HOSPITAL emergency departments are being swamped by people turning up with minor ailments because primary care and local health centres cannot keep up with demand, new figures have revealed.

Spanning the last year, the figures from Data for England, part of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), show that more than 8.5 million people went to hard-pressed hospital A&E departments with minor complaints such as hiccups, sore throats, back ache and insomnia last year.

They show A&E departments dealing with 257,915 cases of earache (up 10 per cent); 324,443 cases of backache (up 13 per cent); 423,297 cases of headache (up 12 per cent); 369,264 people with coughs (up 15 per cent) and 963 cases of hiccups (up 18 per cent).