Half of hospitals failing to declare critical incidents despite 12 hour waits in A&E

Dozens of hospitals are failing to declare critical incidents despite having out-of-control waiting times at A&E.

New figures handed to The Independent have revealed that more than half of NHS trusts have longer A&E waiting times than those which have already been forced to take emergency measures to deal with overwhelming demand. More than a dozen hospitals announced incidents at the start of January, but the health secretary later revealed the true figure was 24.