112,000 A&E waits of over 24 hours recorded across 47 trusts in 2025

EMBARGO: 22.30 Tuesday 17th February 2026

A Freedom of Information request by the Liberal Democrats reveals the shocking crisis in our NHS, with the average hospital trust now seeing nearly 3,000 patients wait more than 24 hours in A&E each year.

In some trusts patients have waited over a week for admission, with one patient, in Surrey and Sussex healthcare trust, waiting more than 16 days and nights to be admitted. Over half of trusts have recorded waits of over three days or longer. A further 15% of trusts have recorded waits of over 5 days and nights.

A devastating postcode lottery is emerging with half of trusts seeing an increase in the number of 24 hour waits last year. ⅓ of trusts saw the number of 24 hour waits increase by more than 200 and nearly 10% of trusts by over 1000. Frimley and Wolverhampton recorded increases in 24 hour waits of 2,469 patients and 2,586 patients respectively.

Last month Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Helen Morgan tabled a bill to enshrine a legal right for patients to be admitted to A&E within 12 hours, creating a statutory duty for ministers to deliver it. The party has said that “accountability” is needed to end negligence from ministers.

The party has set out a £1.5bn plan to end corridor care and 12 hour waits within a year. Under their plans 6,000 more beds would be made available through investment in social care, supporting carers and hospices and boosting step down care so that  thousands more people can leave hospital each week. The party would also secure 8,000 extra GPs so that every patient can be seen within a week or 24 hours if urgent so fewer people turn to A&E in desperation.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said:

“Hundreds of thousands of patients are waiting agonisingly long hours in A&E for the care they need. It’s completely disgraceful, and this Government should hang their heads in shame.

"Enough is enough. This is a national emergency, yet Labour ministers have allowed the crisis to get even worse. It cannot be ignored any longer, to do so would be far too dangerous.

“No government should tolerate this disaster, and ministers should be held accountable if they continue to fail in their duty to protect patients."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Data can be found here.