Patients have been forced to wait up to ten days in emergency departments to be admitted to hospital due to a severe shortage of beds, alarming new figures reveal.
Almost every trust in England reports having left at least one person languishing on a stretcher in their emergency department for 24 hours or more over the past year.
And ten hospitals reported waits of more than 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 62-year-old terminally ill cancer patient Madeline Butcher was pictured lying on the floor in A&E at Blackpool Victoria Hospital because there was no room for her on a ward.
Madeleine Butcher, 62, who has terminal cancer, was forced to lie on the floor in A&E as she awaited treatment for a suspected sepsis infection as she felt too uncomfortable to sit in 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 at A&E, but this has not been achieved in any month since July 2015.
Last year, 466,000 patients waited more than 12 hours to be seen, three times longer than they should have.
The Society for Acute Medicine called the long waits a “scandal” and said the figures highlighted the “dire situation” in urgent and emergency care, which is causing “significant harm and some premature deaths”.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine also said long waits in A&E were “dangerous” and warned they contributed to 300 deaths a week in 2023.
Last year, around 4.5 million patients went to emergency departments because they could not get an appointment with their GP, increasing pressure on emergency services.
Meanwhile, 13,300 beds – the equivalent of 26 entire hospitals – are filled with patients who are medically fit to be discharged but cannot leave because care is not available in the community.
Labour, which submitted the freedom of information requests, said it would ease congestion in emergency services by training thousands more GPs, cutting red tape and getting hospitals to fund more care home beds.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: ’14 years of Tory neglect has left patients lying on the floors of hospital wards waiting days to be seen.
‘The NHS cannot continue like this, but if the Tories infiltrate for another five years, nothing will change.
‘Labour’s plan will fix the front door of the NHS and see hospitals work with social care providers, so patients can get appointments and leave hospital once they are well enough.
‘Only Labour has a plan to reform the NHS and get patients back to care on time, but change will only happen if you vote for it.’
Dr Tim Cooksley, former president of the Society of Acute Medicine, said: ‘These data are further evidence of the dire situation in urgent and emergency care.
‘These patients are suffering significant harm and some premature deaths as a result.
‘These are primarily acute medical patients who should be in beds, not languishing in undignified corridors of emergency departments and acute medical units.
‘Specialist doctors have to examine and treat these patients in the corridors, often having difficult conversations.
“This is truly a scandal and must be treated as an emergency. It is essential to have a sustainable plan to resolve this crisis immediately after the elections.”
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: ‘We welcome this statement of intent from Labour to reduce long waiting times in A&E, which we know are dangerous, and to improve links with social care services to improve the flow of patients through hospital.
“However, we will not celebrate until we see a reduction in waiting times and overcrowding in emergency departments. This is what exhausted emergency workers and the general public deserve.”
A Conservative spokesman said: “If Labour had a credible plan for the NHS, it would be implementing it in Labour-governed Wales.
‘Instead, waiting lists are at record levels and patients are waiting eight weeks longer on average than patients in England.
‘A Labour supermajority would give Keir Starmer unfettered power to do exactly the same thing in England.
‘Only 130,000 people who are thinking of voting for the Reform Party or the Liberal Democrats can avoid a Labour supermajority if they stick to the plan and vote Conservative on Thursday.’