Patients are more likely to die if they endure long waits in A&E before being admitted to a hospital bed, according to new research.
The study, published in the Emergency Medicine Journal, found waiting longer than five hours in A&E increased the risk of dying from any cause within 30 days, with the risks going up the longer people waited.
Medics working in NHS departments said the issue has got worse since the study was carried out, while one lay member of a royal college said the four-hour A&E target, which is due to be scrapped, is of “key importance to patient safety”.
