Nearly 400,000 patients waited more than a day to be seen in A&E last year thanks to a “year-round” care crisis.
The country’s top emergency room doctor has warned that elderly and seriously ill patients are enduring long, stressful waits in environments “worse than an airport lounge.”
Data from NHS England revealed that 54,000 patients spent more than 48 hours in A&E and almost 19,000 spent the equivalent of three days, many of them without even a trolley to wait on.
Waits of more than 12 hours for emergency care have increased 100-fold since 2019, with 40 percent of patients waiting more than four hours to be discharged, transferred or admitted.
The risk of death increases after five days of waiting for an emergency and worsens the longer you wait.
Undercover footage at a hospital shows a patient abandoned in a ‘Fit for Sitting’ area for 30 hours, while a patient with a suspected stroke spent a day there due to overcrowding.
Others were forced to wait up to four and a half hours in ambulance queues or were ‘abandoned’ in the hospital’s ‘Ambulance Reception Area’, without a proper medical handover.
Pictured: A man sleeps on the floor in A&E while waiting 45 hours for a bed at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent.
A man sleeps on the floor while waiting in A&E at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent.
Experts said the dire situation was causing people to die in emergencies “who had no reason to be dying.”
The chaotic scenes were filmed for Channel 4’s Dispatches by a reporter working as a trainee healthcare assistant at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. Last week, the hospital declared a “critical incident” after high demand left it overwhelmed.
In one video, an elderly man is forced to urinate into a cart in the hallway in full view of staff and other patients, while in another a woman is left crying in agony for hours, Channel 4 said.
It took 20 minutes for one nurse to return with pain relief for a woman in agony and another woman was waiting for 24 hours and staff didn’t know she was there.
The video shows a senior nurse reading a list of serious complaints about the department, which includes a patient brings found deceased in a cubicle with an oxygen mask and vomit around his mouth.
Nurses told an undercover reporter that patients receive “disgusting” and “unsafe” care, the documentary heard.
Experts said the dire situation was causing people to die in emergencies “who had no reason to be dying.”
The broadcaster says it has uncovered poor hygiene and infection control practices, a makeshift ward that had no sinks and insufficient power outlets, and patients forced to wait up to four and a half hours in ambulance queues.
NHS England, responding to the documentary, said what was observed is “not common in A&E across the country and is not acceptable”, while the trust said it intends to fully investigate the claims.
In October last year, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected eight core services provided by Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust and found areas of concern in relation to the quality and safety, and responsiveness of care. urgency and emergency.
Lorraine Tedeschini, CQC operations director for the Midlands, said: “The trust’s emergency departments were overcrowded and patients faced long delays.
‘We had significant concerns about the monitoring of patients waiting to be seen and the ability of staff to identify and act quickly when people’s health was at risk of deteriorating.
“We took enforcement action to make it clear to the trust that action needs to be taken to address those issues and ensure people are not at risk, and we have been closely monitoring their progress.”
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said: “These findings paint a worrying picture.”
Patients wait an average of 33 minutes for an ambulance in emergencies such as strokes and heart attacks, when the target is 18 minutes, according to the think tank.
Commenting on the images and data, Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “The things we have seen here today are clearly not just limited to winter. It was a year-round crisis in the emergency care. Spending two days in an emergency department is… worse than spending two days in an airport lounge.
A spokesperson for Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust disputed some of the claims made in Dispatches, but promised to investigate all of them.
Professor Julian Redhead, national clinical director for urgent and emergency care at NHS England, said: “What has been seen at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust… is not commonplace on hospital wards. emergencies across the country, and is not acceptable, and we will continue to offer the Trust the highest level of national support to improve care.’
Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said: “These findings paint a worrying picture of what the Conservatives have done to our NHS over the past 14 years.
‘People are forced to wait days in agony, their dignity is denied and lives are avoidably lost.
‘The Conservatives aren’t being honest about the state of the NHS, but Labor will: the NHS is broken. “It can’t go on like this, but the only way to make a change is to vote for it.”
A Conservative spokesman said: “Labour can continue attacking from the sidelines all they want, but their record in Wales speaks for itself.”
“Labour-ruled Wales has the longest NHS waiting lists ever recorded, with one in four people waiting for treatment and patients waiting almost seven weeks longer than those in England.
“It’s an example of what Keir Starmer’s government ‘plan’ is like: they would do it in England and raise taxes on workers by £2,094 to fund it.”
Grandpa’s Two-Day Ordeal
A grandfather with pneumonia was forced to spend 55 hours in a crowded consultation room while waiting for a bed in A&E.
Geoffrey Knell during his 55-hour wait at the QEQM Hospital in Margate
Geoffrey Knell, 79, spent more than two “uncomfortable and painful” days in a chair before he was given a space on a ward at Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, Kent.
The grandfather-of-seven, pictured, was admitted with a chest infection at 7am on March 26, but was not given a bed until 2.30pm on March 28.
His son, Paul, said he was not given a single hot meal while he waited. He added: “He can’t walk very far… so mom has to be with him 90 percent of the time.” But that means she too has lost sleep and is 76 years old.