Almost 400,000 patients waited more than a day to be seen in A&E last year thanks to a ‘year-round’ care crisis.
The nation’s top emergency doctor warned seriously ill and elderly patients are enduring long, stressful waits in surroundings ‘worse than an airport lounge’.
NHS England data revealed 54,000 patients spent more than 48 hours in A&E and almost 19,000, the equivalent of three days – many without even a trolley to wait on.
Waits of more than 12 hours for emergency care are up 100-fold since 2019, and 40 per cent of patients wait far longer than four hours to be discharged, transferred or admitted.
The risk of death increases after five days of emergency waiting, and gets worse the longer they wait.
Undercover footage at one hospital shows a patient left in a ‘Fit to Sit’ area for 30 hours while a suspected stroke patient spent a day there because of overcrowding.
Others were forced to wait for up to four-and-a-half hours in ambulance queues or were ‘dumped’ in the hospital’s ‘Ambulance Reception Area,’ without a proper medical handover.
Pictured: A man sleeps on the floor in A&E as he waited for 45 hours for a bed at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent
A man sleeps on the floor while waiting at A&E in William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent
Experts said the dire situation was resulting in people dying in A&E ‘that don’t need to be dying’.
The chaotic scenes were filmed for Channel 4’s Dispatches by a reporter working as a trainee healthcare assistant at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. Just last week, the hospital declared a ‘critical incident’ after high demand left it overwhelmed.
In one clip, an elderly man is forced to urinate in a trolley on the corridor in full view of staff and other patients while in another a woman is left crying in agony for hours, Channel 4 said.
It took a nurse 20 mins to return with pain relief for a woman in agony and another woman was waiting for 24 hours and staff didn’t know she was there.
The video shows a senior nurse reading from a list of serious complaints about the department which includes a patient bring found deceased in a cubicle wearing an oxygen mask, with vomit around their mouth.
Nurses told an undercover reporter that patients are receiving ‘disgusting’ and ‘unsafe’ care, the documentary hears.
Experts said the dire situation was resulting in people dying in A&E ‘that don’t need to be dying’
The broadcaster says it has uncovered poor hygiene and infection control practices, a makeshift ward which had no sinks and insufficient plug sockets, and patients being forced to wait up to four-and-a-half hours in ambulance queues.
NHS England, responding to the documentary, said what was observed ‘is not commonplace in A&Es across the country and is not acceptable’, while the trust said it intends to fully investigate the claims.
In October last year, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected eight core services provided by the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust, finding areas of concern in relation to quality and safety, and the responsiveness of urgent and emergency care.
Lorraine Tedeschini, CQC director of operations for the Midlands, said: ‘The trust’s emergency departments were overcrowded and patients faced lengthy delays.
‘We had significant concerns about the oversight of patients waiting to be seen and the ability of staff to identify and quickly act when people’s health was at risk of deteriorating.
‘We took enforcement action to make clear to the trust that action must be taken to address those issues and ensure people are not at risk, and we have been monitoring their progress closely.’
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said: ‘These findings paint a distressing picture’
Patients are waiting 33 minutes on average for an ambulance in emergency cases such as strokes and heart attacks, when the target is 18 minutes, the think-tank said.
Commenting on the footage and data, Dr Adrian Boyle, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: ‘The things we’ve seen here today are clearly not just confined to winter. It was a year-round crisis in emergency care. Spending two days in an emergency department is… worse than spending two days in an airport lounge.’
A Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust spokesman disputed some of the claims made in Dispatches but vowed to investigate them all.
Professor Julian Redhead, NHS England’s national clinical director for urgent and emergency care, said: ‘What has been observed in Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust… is not commonplace in A&Es across the country, and is not acceptable, and we are continuing to offer the Trust the highest level of national support to improve care.’
Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said: ‘These findings paint a distressing picture of what the Conservatives have done to our NHS over the past 14 years.
‘People are forced to wait entire days in agony, they are being denied their dignity, and lives are lost avoidably.
‘The Conservatives are not being honest about the state of the NHS, but Labour will: the NHS is broken. It can’t go on like this, but the only way to get change is to vote for it.’
A Conservative spokesperson said: ‘Labour can continue to snipe from the sidelines all they wish but their record in Wales speaks for itself.
‘In Labour-run Wales, they’ve got the longest NHS waiting lists on record, with one in four people waiting for treatment, and patients waiting nearly seven weeks longer than those in England.
‘It’s a glimpse at what Keir Starmer’s ‘blueprint’ for government looks like – they’d do it in England and put taxes up on working people by £2,094 to fund it.’
Grandfather’s two-day ordeal
A grandfather with pneumonia was forced to spend 55 hours in a cramped consultation room while waiting for a bed in A&E.
Geoffrey Knell during his 55 hour wait at the QEQM Hospital in Margate
Geoffrey Knell, 79, spent more than two ‘uncomfortable and painful’ days in a chair before he was given a space on a ward at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, Kent.
The grandfather-of-seven, pictured, was admitted with a chest infection at 7am on March 26 but was not given a bed until 2.30pm on March 28.
His son, Paul, said he was not given a single hot meal while waiting. He added: ‘He can’t walk very far… so mum has to be with him 90 per cent of the time. But that means she’s been losing sleep too, and she’s 76.’
