THERE were more than 16,600 deaths associated with long A&E waits before admission in England last year, analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine revealed yesterday.
That’s an increase of 20% (2,725) compared to 2023, RCEM President, Dr Adrian Boyle reported at the launch of the newly formed All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Emergency Care.
Last year, more than 1.7 million patients waited 12 hours or more to be admitted, discharged or transferred from A&E. That’s almost 14% more compared to 2023.
Of these patients, 69.2% were waiting to be admitted to a ward for further care.
Using the Standard Mortality Ratio – a method which calculates that there will be one additional death for every 72 patients that experience an 8-12 hour wait prior to their admission – RCEM estimates that there were 16,644 associated excess deaths related to stays of 12 hours or longer before being admitted.
That’s the lives of 320 people lost every week.
Dr Adrian Boyle, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said: ‘I am at a loss as how to adequately describe the scale of this figure. To give it some context, it is the equivalent of two aeroplanes crashing every week.
‘It’s sobering, heartbreaking, devastating and more. Because this is so much more than just data and statistics. Each number represents a person – a dearly loved family member – grandparents, parents, siblings and friends – who has died because of a system in crisis.
‘These were patients who were stuck in Emergency Departments, watching the clock tick by as they waited extremely long hours, often on a trolley in a corridor, for an in-patient bed to become available for them.’
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, who is the Member of Parliament for Tooting and Chair of the APPG on Emergency Care, said: ‘These statistics make for sobering reading. Ever-increasing numbers of excess deaths and long wait times in our emergency departments are simply not sustainable.
‘As an emergency doctor, I know exactly how stretched our A&Es across the country are, as I see it on a weekly basis on my shifts.’
Dr Nick Murch, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said the figures represent a ‘profound failure within our healthcare system’, adding: ‘It is simply shocking to see such a large number of deaths associated with excess waits in emergency departments, but, tragically, the warning signs have been present for far too long.’