Nearly 19,000 NHS patients left waiting for three days in A&E over 12 months

An undercover reporter secretly filmed himself working as a trainee healthcare assistant inside the emergency department of the Royal Shrewsbury hospital for two months. Photograph: Dispatches/Channel 4/PA

Almost 19,000 NHS patients were left waiting in A&E for three days over a 12-month period, an investigation has revealed.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, nearly 400,000 people were left waiting more than 24 hours across A&E departments, a 5% rise on the previous year. Channel 4’s Dispatches programme also found that 54,000 people had to wait more than two days, a freedom of information request to NHS England found.