One in 10 A&E patients waited more than 12 hours in 2025

Analysis by the BBC showed that one in 10 patients attending major accident and emergency units in England last year spent more than 12 hours there.

During 2025, 1.75 million patients waited that long to be treated and discharged or find a ward bed – only marginally better than in 2024.

It comes as the Royal College of Nursing warned that long waits and care in corridors – where patients are left for hours in temporary areas – were having a devastating impact.

The union published testimonials from members across the UK describing unsafe and degrading care, with one nurse saying animals were treated better at vets.

The government said this was unacceptable, but it was still dealing with the legacy it inherited.

Health Minister Wes Streeting admitted that corridor care remained a problem, saying the NHS was “inadequate”.

“It should never be normalized,” he added.

He said he was committed to ending this practice before the end of the Parliament session and would soon begin publishing data about it to ensure transparency.

But he said that in terms of some measures, such as ambulance response times, there had been an improvement compared to last year.

In other areas of care, he said patients are “starting to feel a difference,” noting progress on the hospital’s waiting list.

Regarding care in the corridors, RCN members described feeling ashamed and embarrassed about the situation, saying patients were being crammed into corridors and treated in kitchens, dining areas and side rooms.

In one case, a nurse reported a patient died after suffocating undetected in the corridor, while others said they had to lift sheets around patients while performing intimate procedures.

One nurse in northwest England said: “It breaks my heart when I am at work and there is a patient, usually an elderly person, in the corridor who comes back two days later and is still there.”

Another from the South West described the system as broken and that patients were suffering “a kind of torture”, while another nurse added: “We wouldn’t treat animals this way in a veterinary practice, so why in a hospital?”

RCN General Secretary Professor Nicola Ringer said the testimonies showed the “devastating humanitarian consequences” of the pressures in hospitals.

She was speaking after announcing a series of hospitals Critical incidents During the first two weeks of the new year.

At one hospital – Nottingham University Hospital – managers warned of patients in corridors and apologized for “significant and unacceptable delays” in accident and emergency services.

The BBC has seen the impact of the pressures firsthand. This month our teams filmed inside Leicester Royal Infirmary where staff describe the “constant pressure” and daily challenge of “maintaining a patient’s dignity while in the corridor”.

Doctors and nurses told the BBC they were struggling to find beds for some of the hospital’s most vulnerable patients, with elderly people often left waiting overnight in plastic chairs for eight or nine hours.

Among them was Patricia, in her 70s, who fell and was suffering from severe chest pains. She spent nine hours waiting in the chair.

She said she felt “very tired” and “confused about what was happening.”

Another patient, Anne, arrived by ambulance and was being treated for an infection and dehydration. She had been waiting 48 hours for a bed in the ward.

Although she praised the care she received, specialist staff had to come to the emergency department to supervise her rehabilitation due to the lack of a suitable bed.

“This is not the level of care we want to provide,” said Scott Knapp, an emergency department consultant.

“We will do everything we can for her, but it puts extra stress on the system and extra stress on the nursing staff within the emergency department.”

However, the institution does not have to declare a serious incident, and says patients needing urgent care should come forward.

Monthly data on 12-hour waits is published by NHS England. In 2024, 10.5% of patients waited for 12 hours or more in major accident and emergency units from arrival to the point where they were treated and discharged or found a bed on the ward if they needed to be admitted. In 2025, it was 10.1%.

Waiting times are measured slightly differently elsewhere in the UK, but other countries all have problems too.

Dr Ian Higginson, from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said the pressures seen were taking a “huge toll on patients”.

“They are forced to endure these conditions, often for hours, if not days, because the hospitals are full.”

The Liberal Democrats this week proposed giving patients a legal right to be admitted or treated and discharged within 12 hours to help end what they said was a “deadly corridors of care crisis”.

Figures relating to the waiting list for planned treatments at the hospital, such as knee and hip operations, have also been published.

At the end of November, there were 7.31 million patients on the waiting list – down from 7.4 million the previous month – the lowest level since February 2023.

NHS England has published an evaluation of its support program for areas with the highest rates of economic inactivity.

NHS trusts in the 20 areas with the worst unemployment rates have been given extra support with specialist teams of doctors and managers sent to try to cut the waiting list.

Over the past year, the waiting list has dropped by 4.2%, three times faster than elsewhere.