More than 1,300 monthly deaths in England are now linked to long waits in accident and emergency departments, according to analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM). The figure – 15,860 preventable deaths in 2025, a tenfold increase from 1,657 in 2015 – reflects a crisis that frontline physicians say is being obscured by misleading performance measurements.
NHS data shows that 50,775 patients waited at least 12 hours from the decision to admit to admission in December 2025 alone, while 151,724 waited more than 12 hours from arrival at a major A&E. Over the course of 2023, more than 1.5 million patients spent 12 hours or longer in type 1 and 2 emergency departments, with 65% of those awaiting admission. The number of people spending 24 hours or more in type 1 departments reached 493,751 in 2025, up from 487,608 in 2024 and 377,986 in 2023.
Meanwhile, the practice known as “corridor care” – treating patients in clinically inappropriate spaces – has become routine. In April 2026 the government deployed specialist teams to the worst-affected NHS trusts with a stated aim of ending the practice by the end of this parliament, a target that critics describe as insufficiently ambitious.
The number of people leaving A&E without treatment has tripled in six years: between July and September 2025, more than 320,000 patients walked out untreated, largely attributed to frustration over excessive waits.
A system under strain – and a misleading metric
Dr Carole Gavin, a consultant emergency physician in Manchester with more than 30 years’ experience, says the official narrative of improving performance masks the reality for the sickest patients. “The government appears to be prepared to accept these deaths,” she writes. “When we repeatedly try to raise the alarm we are told NHS performance is improving as there are fewer patients waiting in A&E for more than four hours. However those are the well patients who will go home, while the seriously ill patients wait for up to 48 hours for admission to a bed – something that would have been unimaginable a few years ago.”
The RCEM has long warned that the four-hour target – the metric the government cites – does not capture the experience of patients requiring admission. The underlying causes of the crisis are systemic. General and acute bed occupancy in England averaged 93.1% in 2025, well above the level considered safe for operational effectiveness. An average of 12,906 patients per day were medically fit for discharge but remained in hospital, a phenomenon known as “exit block” driven by shortfalls in social care and community health services. That blockage, in turn, clogs emergency departments and forces staff to treat patients in corridors.
Staffing shortages compound the problem. A survey conducted in March 2026 found that around 60% of clinical leads described their department as moderately understaffed, while more than one-fifth reported severe understaffing. To meet current demand, the RCEM estimates the NHS needs an additional 2,500 consultants and 4,000 nurses in urgent care departments in England.
The RCEM states the problem is not simply “front door pressure” but a crisis across the whole hospital system, driven by years of underinvestment, rising demand from an ageing population with multiple long-term conditions, difficulties accessing primary care, and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Government promises and physician frustration
The government has announced nearly £450 million of investment in urgent and emergency care, including approximately 40 new Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) and Urgent Treatment Centres (UTCs), up to 15 mental health crisis assessment centres, and the rollout of almost 500 new ambulances by March 2026. It has set a target to reduce the number of patients waiting more than four hours in A&E by 800,000 per year, and to end corridor care by 2029. The ambition that no more than 10% of patients should spend longer than 12 hours in emergency departments has been criticised by senior emergency doctors as lacking ambition, given that level has already been reached in recent years.
Critics describe the £215 million specifically allocated to urgent and treatment centres as a “drop in the ocean”, arguing that without fundamental reform of social care, workforce planning, and resource allocation the core problems will persist.
Dr Gavin, whose letter was published before the government’s latest announcements, says the solutions “will not be easy and will require significant investment”. She adds: “If the government fails to act it will bear the responsibility and shame for yet more avoidable deaths that I and my colleagues will continue to witness on a daily basis while our protests fall on deaf ears.”
