Round 49,000 A&E sufferers needed to wait 24 hours or extra for a hospital mattress in England final yr, based on NHS figures.
Knowledge compiled by the Liberal Democrats from freedom of data requests exhibits the longest wait was 10 days and 13 hours.
The celebration mentioned there have been 48,830 “trolley waits” of 24 hours or longer in 2024. That’s 19.8% larger than 2023 (40,735) and 57.9% larger than 2022 (30,921).
A “trolley wait” is the time taken for a affected person to be transferred to a ward after a call has been taken to confess them to hospital.
The Lib Dems mentioned the actual numbers had been more likely to be far larger as a result of solely 54 out of 141 NHS trusts had supplied full knowledge.
During the last three years, the share of these ready aged 65 or over remained constant at round 70%.
The Royal Faculty of Nursing mentioned the figures “only begin to scratch the surface” of a “crisis in corridor care” – and that declining recruitment in nursing was including to the issue.
Normal secretary Professor Nicola Ranger mentioned hall care is “undignified and unsafe” and “must be eradicated”.
Please use Chrome browser for a extra accessible video participant
Disaster ‘will take time’ to repair
The federal government has made chopping NHS ready lists certainly one of its key missions.
It insisted progress had been made by deploying RSV, COVID and flu vaccines, ending strikes by healthcare staff and reforming the well being service, together with scrapping NHS England.
A spokesperson for the Division of Well being and Social Care mentioned: “No affected person ought to should spend 24 hours in A&E ready to be admitted to a ward.
“We are determined to end the annual winter crisis in urgent care and to cut waiting lists for emergency care, but it will take time.”
They mentioned “providing more care in the community” would assist guarantee fewer sufferers find yourself in A&E to start with.
The Lib Dems are campaigning for a brand new group of “super-heads”, consisting of skilled NHS bosses, to be deployed inside struggling NHS Trusts and produce them as much as normal.
Learn extra from Sky Information:
A&E waits linked to deaths
Labour marks NHS ‘milestone’
Official statistics present the entire variety of sufferers ready over 12 hours for an emergency admission in England decreased from 61,529 in January to 46,766 in March.
A number of the fall will be attributed to a post-seasonal peak from winter sicknesses.
Earlier evaluation by the Royal Faculty of Emergency Medication discovered there have been virtually 14,000 deaths related to lengthy A&E stays earlier than admission in 2023.
