Numbers leaving A&E without treatment triples in six years

Between July and September 2025, more than 320,000 people left A&E without being treated – a more than threefold increase from the same period in 2019. Photograph: Islandstock/Alamy

The number of people in England walking out of A&E without treatment has tripled in the past six years, new figures show.

Analysis of NHS data by the Royal College of Nursing shows that a rise in demand for urgent hospital care and long waits has led to what it describes as a “shocking” rise in the number of patients leaving emergency departments untreated.