Over half million Brits waited at least 12 hour at emergency services in 2024

LONDON

More than 500,000 patients in the UK experienced trolley waits of at least 12 hours at accident and emergency (A&E) services last year, a new research showed on Monday.

Corridor care in hospitals is being "normalized" at hospitals, warned the research conducted by the Liberal Democrats, as it emerged there were a record 518,000 "trolley waits" of 12 hours or more in 2024.

The party's health spokesperson, Helen Morgan, said the scale of the issue was a "scandal" and that the government was "asleep at the wheel."

She called on Health Secretary Wes Streeting to announce an emergency plan to increase the number of hospital beds and end corridor care.

"It is a scandal that corridor care is becoming normalized with thousands of patients left on trolleys for hours or even days on end," she added.

The analysis showed that a record number of patients waited 12 hours or more to be admitted to hospital from A&E in 2024, a 25% rise on the previous year.

"Shockingly, the number of patients waiting 12 hours or more to be admitted to hospital from A&E last year was up 23-fold from 8,272 in 2019,” according to the research.

Citing the Royal College of Emergency Medicine figures, the study said that in 2023, an estimated 14,000 deaths were associated with long waits in A&E.

"It must include an urgent expansion of the number of hospital beds to get back to safe levels and a pandemic-style emergency recruitment campaign to bring staff out of retirement and back into the workforce," Morgan said.

In a statement last week, the British National Health Service said hospitals in England experienced the "busiest year on record" for A&E and ambulance services last year as flu continues to pile pressure on hospitals into 2025.