A&E wait times: "Patients are dying in their droves" 

EMBARGO: 00:01 Tuesday 28th February 

Commenting on the Royal College of Emergency Medicine's new data revealing that there were 23,003 excess deaths in 2022 due A&E wait times, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

“These distressing figures suggest that patients are now dying in their droves as our health services struggle to cope after years of neglect from this Conservative Government.

"To put it in perspective, the estimated 23,000 excess deaths is 3,000 more than the number of people who lost their lives in Japan's catastrophic tsunami in 2011. 

“Long waiting times are leading to unnecessary deaths, and this is nothing short of a national disaster. 

"We need a proper plan now to increase  the number of hospital beds, reduce A&E delays and bring the NHS back from the brink. That must start with recruiting more GPs, empowering our pharmacists and helping patients leaving hospital to access social care."

ENDS