Needless deaths due to long waits in A&E are like TWO plane crashes every week, study suggests

More than 16,600 patients suffered needless deaths in England last year due to very long waits in A&E, a damning study suggests.

Analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said the alarming toll - equal to 320 deaths a week - is a fifth higher than in 2023.

The victims came to harm after being left to languish on a trolley while doctors waited for a bed to become available on a ward.

Dr Adrian Boyle, the College’s president, said: ‘I am at a loss as how to adequately describe the scale of this figure.

‘To give it some context, it is the equivalent of two aeroplanes crashing every week.

‘It’s sobering, heartbreaking, devastating and more. Because this is so much more than just data and statistics.

‘Each number represents a person – a dearly loved family member, grandparents, parents, siblings and friends – who has died because of a system in crisis.

‘These were patients who were stuck in emergency departments, watching the clock tick by as they waited extremely long hours, often on a trolley in a corridor, for an in-patient bed to become available for them.’

Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine

Dr Boyle will discuss the findings today [THU] at the launch of the newly formed All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Emergency Care.

The group, chaired by Labour MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, an A&E doctor, has said it will look first at the harm caused to patients by delays and ‘corridor care’.

Last year, more than 1.7 million patients waited 12 hours or more to be admitted, discharged or transferred from A&E.

Of these, 69.2 per cent were waiting to be admitted to a ward for further care, the RCEM said.

For its excess death estimates, the RCEM uses a study of more than five million NHS patients published in the Emergency Medicine Journal (EMJ) in 2021.

This found there was one excess death for every 72 patients that spent eight to 12 hours in an A&E department prior to being found a bed.

The risk of death from any cause within 30 days started to increase after five hours and got worse with longer waiting times. 

Using this method, RCEM estimates there were 16,644 excess deaths in 2024 related to stays of 12 hours or more.

Labour MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, chair of the newly formed All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Emergency Care

This is the equivalent of 320 lives lost every week and up 20 per cent on the 13, 919 the previous year.

A harrowing report by the Royal College of Nurses in January revealed how dead patients are lying undiscovered for hours in A&E as staff are too overstretched to notice.

A severe shortage of beds means sick Britons are being left in ‘animal-like’ conditions in hospital carparks, cupboards and toilets.

It featured the testimonies of more than 5,000 nurses, who exposed how they are caring for as many as 40 patients in a single corridor - some blocking fire exits or parked next to vending machines.

There, they have no access to a call bell, oxygen or lifesaving equipment and are often out of sight of the nursing station.

Dr Boyle said the research only applies to one group of NHS patients and ‘we know there may well be many more tragic deaths linked to long stays’.

He added: ‘For example, patients left waiting for urgent medical care in the community because ambulances can’t safely hand over their patients in emergency departments because they are full, or those too anxious to seek help with they should.

‘The issue also affects A&E staff who are trying their best to deliver care in areas that are designed to be throughfares – not treatment spaces.

More than 16,600 patients suffered needless deaths in England last year due to very long waits in A&E, a damning study suggests

‘Ultimately, the emergency care crisis is fixable. It’s all about flow – getting patients into to a ward bed when they need one and home again as soon as they are well enough to leave.

‘How best to do this, will be considered by the APPG and we look forward to working with the MPs and peers who have joined as members to resuscitate emergency care.’

Dr Boyle will tell the launch event that almost half a million (478,901) patients waited more than 24 hours in A&E last year – one in every 35 patients attending.

He will say this is 100,410 more people compared to 2023.

Dr Allin-Khan said: ‘These statistics make for sobering reading.

‘Ever-increasing numbers of excess deaths and long wait times in our emergency departments are simply not sustainable.’

Dr Nick Murch, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said the figures represented a ‘profound failure within our healthcare system’, adding: ‘It is simply shocking to see such a large number of deaths associated with excess waits in emergency departments, but, tragically, the warning signs have been present for far too long.

‘We must ensure that 12-hour waits in emergency departments again become an infrequent exception rather than the norm and that will require urgent and adequate action on workforce and capacity issues which remain unresolved.’

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'This report lays bare the crisis in NHS waiting times we inherited, with patients suffering unacceptable delays for urgent treatment. It will be a long road to fix our NHS, but we are doing the work to get us there.

'It’s why we are investing an extra £26 billion to reform the health service and make it fit for the future through our plan for change.

'This includes shifting services from hospital to community to ease pressure on A&E departments, on top of recruiting an extra 1,000 GPs to reach patients earlier and move towards prevention.’