More than 150,000 patients had to wait a day in A&E before getting a hospital bed last year, according to new data.
Freedom of information data compiled by the Liberal Democrats from 73 hospital trusts – about half the total – found that the number of patients forced to wait more than 24 hours in A&E before a bed could be found for them has increased by tenfold since 2019. The majority of those forced to wait were elderly or frail, with two-thirds of the patients over the age of 65.
“It is appalling that so many elderly and vulnerable people are being forced to put up with these terrifying waits as our health service teeters on the brink,” Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, told the Times, who first reported the findings. “Behind each one of these figures is a story of someone waiting in pain, worried sick about getting the care they need.”
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has estimated that almost 14,000 people died last year in England while waiting in A&E for up to 12 hours – 268 people each week in 2023.
Analysis of official data by the Lib Dems earlier in the year found that more than 1.5 million patients had to wait 12 hours or longer in A&E in the past year, with some hospitals reporting that one in four patients experienced such delays. In February, 44,417 patients waited more than 12 hours in A&E departments.
“Last year NHS staff contended with significant demand – 393,000 more A&E attendances and 217,000 more emergency admissions compared with 2022 – on top of unprecedented industrial action, high bed occupancy and the usual pressure caused by seasonal illness including Covid and flu,” an NHS spokesperson said.
Despite the demand, she insisted there had been “significant progress for patients”, such as increasing capacity of extra beds and ambulances.
The hospitals that had the most patients waiting more than day in A&E were East Kent hospitals, with 14,400 patients, up from 1,300 in 2019. But 10 of the 73 hospital trusts had fewer than 100 patients who waited 24 hours. Some, including Northumbria Healthcare, reported none at all.
Long waits at A&E have been linked to serious patient harm, with data showing that once people wait more than about six hours and need to be admitted into hospital, their risk of dying starts to increase, according to the RCEM.
“The direct correlation between delays and mortality rates is clear,” Dr Adrian Boyle, the president of the RCEM, told the Guardian. “Patients are being subjected to avoidable harm. Urgent intervention is needed to put people first. Patients and staff should not bear the consequences of insufficient funding and under-resourcing. We cannot continue to face inequalities in care, avoidable delays and death.”
In 2019, fewer than 15,000 patients had to endure 24-hour waits. The 153,000 patients forced to wait 24 hours last year is a 17% increase from the year before – after a seven-fold increase between 2021 and 2022.
The NHS recovery plan set a target of March for 76% of patients attending A&E to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, but data for March shows the NHS missed that mark, with just 70.9% of patients seen within that time.
“We are committed to ensuring people get the emergency care they need. A&E four-hour performance improved in February compared with January, despite the highest number of A&E attendances on record and the impact of industrial action,” a Department of Health spokesperson said.
“Our urgent care recovery plan, backed by £1bn in 2023-24, has added an extra 5,000 hospital beds and rolled out 10,000 hospital-at-home wards to help people be treated in the comfort of their own homes.”
The Lib Dems placed the blame for the long waits squarely on the government, accusing it of “neglect of the NHS and care”.
“We desperately need more hospital beds and a long-term solution to the social care crisis to end these devastating A&E delays,” Davey said.
