A&E crisis: 2025 set to be worst ever year for degrading trolley waits with Govt in “total denial”

EMBARGO: 22.30 Monday 1st Dec 

Liberal Democrat analysis of official data has revealed the shocking extent of A&E waiting times, with this year set to be the worst on record. Following the budget, the party is calling for an emergency package of extra hospital and social care beds to protect patients as winter bites.

Between January and October, a record 452,595 people waited more than 12 hours for a bed in A&E following the decision to admit them into hospital, up from just 1,590 over the same period in 2016. This was up 34,000 on the same period last year.

23 trusts have seen increases in excess of 100,000% since 2016, with 5 trusts seeing increases in excess of 500,000%. Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals saw an increase in excess of 1000,000%.

35 A&Es have already seen more than 5,000 patients wait more than 12 hours from decision to admit, with 8 trusts seeing more than 10,000 waits of this length.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for an immediate emergency package this winter: 1,000 extra hospital beds, emergency social care places to free up hospitals, a recruitment and retention drive to increase the number of out-of-hours GPs, and a qualified clinician in every A&E waiting room to protect patients at risk.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said:

“The appalling delays at A&E are needlessly costing lives as patients are left waiting hours on end for the treatment they need.

“The Government should have used the budget to save the NHS. Instead they are in total denial, as patients brace themselves for a historic crisis this winter. 

“We need a proper plan right now to free up hospital beds, reduce A&E delays and bring the NHS back from the brink. That must start with extra staffed beds, and helping people to leave hospital and into social care. Our proposed package would also rebuild GP services so that people can get an appointment within a week, or 24 hours if urgent, and don’t end up in A&E in the first place.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The data can be found here.

Note - non divisible refers to where the data (usually the earlier year) had zero recorded cases.