One in three Brits avoid A&E because of excessive waiting times
In 2025 more than half a million people spent over 12 hours on a hospital trolley waiting for an NHS bed to become available
Almost one in three Brits have avoided A&E in the last two years because of fears that the waits would be too long.
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A poll of over 2,100 adults across the United Kingdom detailed a dramatic increase in the number of people who decided to either self-medicate, tend to open wounds and even make their own slings to deal with broken bones.
Despite Labour placing improvements to the NHS at the heart of its election pledge, the proportion of adults actively forgoing A&E care because of excessive waiting times has risen from 18 per cent in August 2024 to 32 per cent now.
Around half (48 per cent) of those who opted against A&E suffered in pain as a result, and more than one in five were forced to take time off work.
Read more: Norovirus hospital admissions rise as winter bugs ‘continue to cause disruption’
In January, Charlotte from Whitby, Yorkshire, took her 83 year-old mother-in-law Doreen to A&E, with paramedics telling her it was likely she’d had a stroke. Despite this - and Doreen suffering from dementia - she waited 16 hours before being treated.
“It was rammed,” Charlotte recounted. “People were standing everywhere, people were really sick [and] there were people being sick.”
Having witnessed her mother-in-law’s experience, Charlotte says she will not attend A&E unless it is a life-threatening condition.
“You’ve got to think of the comfort that you have in your own house compared to what you have sitting on a plastic chair in bright lights with the craziness all around you and waiting for 16 hours… I'm saying unless you are, you know, on death's door, don't go there.”
However, Dr Sally-Ann Wilson, Vice-President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, has warned that choosing not to go to hospital can have fatal consequences.
“You've got an increased risk of adverse outcomes. I can tell you stories of people that have done the ‘oh, I'll just try and look after myself at home’ and are delayed by a couple of days coming into the department and then their infections turn to sepsis.”
The reluctance of patients to attend A&E when they needed treatment is also likely to have been influenced by the rise in corridor care in NHS hospitals.
Across 2025, more than half a million people spent over 12 hours on a hospital trolley waiting for an NHS bed to come available - an eleven-fold increase in the numbers from 2021.
Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari in December, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, slammed the use of corridor care in NHS England hospitals, and pledged to end the practice by the time of the next elections - “if not sooner”.
“I’ve seen some reports over the last year or so of things like Costa Coffee outlets and the reception area being used to hold patients, and I do not think that’s acceptable,” Mr Streeting lamented, but insisted it was being tackled with “urgency, focus and attention”.
Since coming to power, Labour has reduced the NHS waiting list to 7.3 million people waiting over 18 weeks for treatment - the lowest level since February 2023.
Critics, though, suggest this represents a fall of just 4% since winning a majority in July 2024.
Concerns over patient safety have also reignited this week, with an international study showing that the UK had a higher death rate from harm caused by medical treatment than war-torn Sudan.
The Liberal Democrats, who commissioned the Savanta survey, say the findings reflect “18 months of Labour failure”, exacerbating the shortcomings of the previous Conservative government.
“This really highlights the loss of confidence in accident and emergency services… There's a real risk here that somebody who’s seriously ill misses out on life-saving care because they didn’t go to A&E,” the party’s health spokesperson, Helen Morgan, told LBC.
“I’ve been contacted by constituents who have been forced to wait on plastic chairs for 24-36 hours; I had an incident from a constituent who has to change a stoma bag - she had to do it behind a curtain and somebody came into the room, so she felt very humiliated by the experience.
“It’s an awful situation for staff and patients when the care provided is on a corridor - there is no privacy, and no dignity.”
To combat the pressures facing A&E, the Liberal Democrats are calling for a £1.5 billion package to provide an additional 6,000 beds.
NHS England told LBC that 73.8% of patients were seen within the four-hour target despite winter pressures.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Patients should never be put off seeking the care they need - the NHS should be there for everyone.
“Corridor care is unacceptable and we are determined to end it. Thanks to our £450 million investment and expanded vaccination programmes, we are already seeing improvements in A&E departments - with waits and handover times down and fewer beds being taken up by flu.
“The NHS is also making it simpler and quicker for people to get the help they need, including through Pharmacy First and local GPs, for those who do not require A&E.”