One and a half million patients waited more than 12 hours after arriving at emergency departments in England last year, figures show.
For the first time, data have been published on the time spent in an emergency department before admission, transfer or discharge.
These figures are separate from the regularly published ‘trolley wait’ figures, which only measure the time that passes after the decision to admit a patient has been made.
And they show that – in some NHS trusts – as many as one in four patients face delays of 12 hours or more after arriving at the emergency department.
The Liberal Democrats, who carried out the analysis, say their findings show that delays of half a day have ‘almost become the norm’.
As many as one in four patients experience delays of twelve hours or more after arriving at the emergency department (stock image)
The latest figures show that a total of 1,540,945 patients faced wait times of 12 hours or more after arriving at A&E between February 2023, when the new data was first published, and January 2024.
This equates to almost one in ten patients in that period, five times higher than the NHS requirement that no more than 2 percent of patients wait 12 hours or more from the time of arrival at A&E.
This means that in the past year, approximately 4,200 patients waited more than 12 hours in the emergency room every day.
January saw its worst ever figures as winter pressure hit: a record 177,805, or one in eight patients, had to wait more than 12 hours in A&E.
Ambulance data shows that response times fell in September. Despite the number of category two callers (yellow line) – such as burns, epilepsy and strokes – remaining static, 999 crews took 37 minutes and 28 seconds to arrive on site (red bars). This is six minutes slower than August and twice as long as the 18-minute target
At Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, more than one in four patients experienced emergency department delays of 12 hours or more in January – the worst in the country.
An 88-year-old woman was forced to wait in a chair for 16 hours in the emergency department of the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading in January.
Another woman in her 80s waited 15 hours in A&E at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in December after coming in with chest pain.
Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman Daisy Cooper MP said: “Every day, thousands of patients are left scared and in pain in overcrowded emergency departments, where they have to wait 12 hours or more to get the care they need.
‘Waiting times of twelve hours or more can have catastrophic consequences for people’s health, especially the elderly and vulnerable.
‘No one should have to wait this long for care, but in some areas these unacceptably long delays have become almost the norm.’ Commenting on the figures, Sir Julian Hartley, CEO of NHS Providers, said: ‘These unacceptably long waiting times for people in pain or distress are symptomatic of an overburdened healthcare system.
‘No trust leader wants a patient to have to wait longer than necessary, especially as their condition could worsen.
‘High hospital bed occupancy, delays in patient discharges from hospital and severe staff shortages are all slowing the flow of patients through the system.
‘Trusts are working incredibly hard to deliver the National Emergency Care Recovery Plan, but the task is fraught with obstacles, hampering progress at almost every point.
‘We need sustainable investment in services and a longer-term strategy to tackle the cycle of winter pressure that returns year after year.
‘A government approach to public health issues such as obesity and smoking would also go a long way to preventing ill health.’
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘Reducing waiting lists is one of the Government’s five top priorities and despite winter pressures and the impact of industrial action, the latest data shows that overall NHS waiting lists have increased for the third have decreased for a month in a row.
‘A&E performance at four-hour wait times also improved in January compared to December, with the number of people seen within four hours increasing to 70 per cent, despite increasing seasonal pressure in winter and the highest number of emergency visits ever.
‘We are committed to continuing to improve patient care as we have already delivered on our commitment to create an additional 5,000 permanent hospital beds and 10,000 home hospital beds, freeing up capacity and reducing waiting times.’