More than 150,000 A&E patients left waiting over a day to get a hospital bed
8 April 2024, 07:32
More than 150,000 patients were forced to wait more than 24 hours to get a hospital bed last year.
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The new figures represent a ten-fold increase on 2019, with old and frail patients making up the bulk of people affected.
Emergency medicine leaders said that the problem was a lack of capacity, and called for thousands more beds. The government added 5,000 more beds last year, but the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said this was not enough.
It comes after it emerged that 250 people are thought to have died each week while waiting for emergency care last year.
According to official figures, almost 40,000 patients a month waited in A&E for 12 hours or more for a bed last year, which is 50 times higher than before the pandemic.
Data compiled by the Liberal Democrats from Freedom of Information requests has revealed that some 153,000 patients from 73 NHS trusts waited more than 24 hours in A&E before being given a bed. The figures do not include patients who were well enough to be sent home without being given a bed.
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In 2019, the same figure was at 15,000, the Times reported.
Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: "It is appalling that so many elderly and vulnerable people are being forced to put up with these terrifying waits as our health service teeters on the brink.
“Behind each one of these figures is a story of someone waiting in pain, worried sick about getting the care they need.”
Sir Ed added: “We desperately need more hospital beds and a long-term solution to the social care crisis to end these devastating A&E delays.”
Dr Adrian Boyle, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said that the patients were "always people who are sick who need to be admitted to hospital.
"The majority are those who have general medical problems and are elderly with multiple conditions. Quite a lot also have mental health problems.”
He added: "We know that staying 12 hours is harmful for people so staying longer certainly won’t be good for people.
"For every 72 stays of 12 hours [in A&E], there will be one excess death. There was also a study in France showing that if people over 75 spend more than 12 hours in the emergency department they had a 5 per cent increased risk of death in the subsequent admission.”
Dr Boyle said that the problems were "accelerated" by the pandemic but were "set in stone beforehand."
A spokesperson for the NHS said: "Last year NHS staff contended with significant demand — 393,000 more A&E attendances and 217,000 more emergency admissions compared with 2022 — on top of unprecedented industrial action, high bed occupancy and the usual pressure caused by seasonal illness including Covid and flu."
The spokesperson added that the health service had made significant progress for patients — alongside increasing capacity including extra beds and ambulances, the NHS has expanded the use of innovative measures like same-day emergency care to help avoid overnight admissions from A&E, and treating people closer to home."
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “We are committed to ensuring people get the emergency care they need. A&E four-hour performance improved in February compared with January, despite the highest number of A&E attendances on record and the impact of industrial action.
“Our Urgent Care Recovery Plan, backed by £1 billion in 2023-24, has added an extra 5,000 hospital beds and rolled out 10,000 hospital at home wards to help people be treated in the comfort of their own homes.”
