Crisis in casualty: A&E patients waiting up to 10 days to be admitted and at least one left languishing on trolleys for 24 hours at almost every trust
Patients have been forced to wait up to ten days in A&E to be admitted to hospital due to a severe shortage of beds, alarming new figures reveal.
Almost every trust in England reports leaving at least one person languishing on a trolley in their emergency department for 24 hours or more over the past year.
And ten hospitals detailed waits of over four days in 2023/24, according to data released under Freedom of Information laws.
Among the 51 trusts that responded, the longest time a patient waited to be admitted last year was 230 hours and 25 minutes, at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust.
The shocking revelations come just days after terminal cancer patient Madeline Butcher, 62, was photographed lying on the floor in A&E at Blackpool Victoria Hospital because there was no space for her on a ward.
Madeleine Butcher, 62, who has terminal cancer was forced to lie on a floor in A&E while awaiting treatment for a possible sepsis infection as she was too uncomfortable to sit on a chair in the unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital
The NHS target is for 95 per cent of patients to be treated or admitted within four hours of arriving in A&E - but this has not been achieved in any month since July 2015.
In the past year, 466,000 patients have waited more than 12 hours to be seen - three times longer than they should.
The Society for Acute Medicine described long waits as a ‘scandal’ and said the figures highlight the ‘appalling situation’ in urgent and emergency care, which is causing ’significant harm and some early deaths’.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine also said long waits in A&E as ‘dangerous’ and warned they contributed to 300 deaths a week in 2023.
Around 4.5million patients went to A&E last year because they could not get a GP appointment, piling extra pressure on emergency departments.
Meanwhile, 13,300 beds - the equivalent of 26 entire hospitals - are filled with patients who are medically fit for discharge but are unable to leave because there is no care available in the community.
The Labour Party, which submitted the FOI requests, said it would unclog A&Es by training thousands more GPs, cutting the red tape that ties them up and getting hospitals to fund more care home beds.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: ’14 years of Conservative neglect has left patients lying on floors of hospital departments and waiting days to be seen.
‘The NHS can’t go on like this, but if the Conservatives sneak in for another five years, nothing will change.
‘Labour’s plan will fix the front door of the NHS and get hospitals working with social care providers, so patients can get appointments and leave hospital once they’re well enough.
‘Only Labour has a plan to reform the NHS and get patients seen on time again, but change will only happen if you vote for it.'
Dr Tim Cooksley, immediate past president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: 'This data is yet more evidence of the appalling situation in urgent and emergency care.
'These patients are suffering significant harm and some early deaths as a result.
'These are mainly acute medical patients who should be in beds not languishing in undignified corridors in emergency departments and acute medical units.
'Acute medical doctors are having to examine and treat these patients in corridors, often having difficult conversations.
'This really is a scandal and should be treated as an emergency. A sustainable plan to resolve this crisis immediately post election is essential.'
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of The Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: ‘We welcome this statement of intention from the Labour party to reduce extended A&E waiting times, which we know are dangerous, and improve links with social care services to improve the flow of patients through the hospital.
‘However, we will not celebrate until we see a reduction in A&E waiting times and overcrowding. It is what the exhausted emergency care workforce and the public deserves.’
A Conservative Party spokesman said: ‘If Labour had a credible plan for the NHS, they would be delivering it in Labour-run Wales.
‘Instead, waiting lists are at a record high and patients are waiting eight weeks longer on average than patients in England.
‘A Labour supermajority will give Keir Starmer unchecked power to do the exact same in England.
'Just 130,000 people who are thinking of voting Reform or Liberal Democrat can prevent a Labour supermajority by sticking with the plan and voting Conservative on Thursday.’