A&E trolley waits the worst in NHS history

EMBARGO: Immediate release

Latest data from the NHS reveals that 2025 recorded the worst trolley waits in their history, with over 554,018 waits of over 12 hours. This follows Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey's PMQ yesterday where he raised an example of a 71 year old woman with cancer waiting 31 hours in A&E.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

“It’s now confirmed in black and white. 2025 confirmed as worst level of corridor care in NHS history, with over half a million people suffering degrading trolley waits in the last year alone. This deadly crisis is not what we expect from our NHS, and it’s not what we pay our hard-earned money in taxes to fund our NHS for.

"Enough is enough. This is a national emergency, yet Labour ministers have allowed the crisis to get even worse. They must immediately implement our plan to end the A&E crisis once and for all.

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

ENDS

Notes to editors

NHS data can be found here

Ed's PMQ is here