Record 6.3 million patients at A&E not seen within 4 hour target last year

25 Jan 2024

Embargoed until 22.30 Thursday 25 January

Over 17,000 patients a day waited over four hours in A&E last year as dangerous delays rise to new record high
Postcode lottery sees almost six in ten patients waiting over four hours in worst hit areas
Not a single NHS trust met the target for 95% of patients to be seen within four hours in 2023, while only six met the watered down new 76% target

A record 6.3 million patients in England waited more than the target time of four hours to be seen at A&E in 2023, almost double the number five years ago, shocking new figures published by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.

This amounts to an average of 17,400 patients a day enduring waits of four hours or more at A&E.

The analysis is based on NHS England data compiled by the House of Commons Library, showing the number of patients waiting over fours at A&E to be admitted, transferred or discharged, and covers 104 of the 124 hospital trusts in England.

The research shows that across England around four in ten (39.4%) of patients waited over four hours in A&E in 2023, almost double the 21.9% who did so in 2019. The level of four hour delays is also at its highest since comparable records began in 2005, after the target was first introduced.

In the worst affected trust, Hillingdon Hospitals, a staggering six in ten (58.9%) patients are waiting over the four hour target. This was followed by United Lincolnshire Hospitals (58.2%), East and North Hertfordshire (57.3%) and Barking, Havering and Redbridge (55.9%).

Not a single NHS trust included in the analysis met the target of over 95% of patients being seen within four hours at A&E last year. Only six trusts met an interim watered down target of 76% of patients being seen within four hours, which is supposed to be met by March 2024.

Long waits at A&E have been linked to significant patient harm. Research from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has estimated that for every 82 admitted patients whose transfer to a hospital bed is delayed beyond 6 to 8 hours from arrival, there is one extra death.

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

“These appalling A&E delays are causing unimaginable harm to patients across the country. People are having to put up with intolerably long waits in overcrowded hospitals, often in pain and distress.

“These stark figures show that Conservative ministers are not even meeting their own watered down targets after years of neglecting local health services.

“The blame for this A&E crisis lies firmly at Rishi Sunak’s door.after his government has driven the NHS into the ground. The government needs to scrap their planned cuts to NHS spending or patients will yet again be left paying the price.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor

Full data from the House of Commons Library is available here. Figures were provided for the 106 of 124 acute NHS trusts for which consistent data is available going back to 2019.

Original source: NHS England, A&E attendances, Quarterly Time Series

In December 2022, an intermediary threshold target of 76% to be hit by March 2024 was introduced with further improvement expected in 2024/25.

Research from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine can be found here.

Commons Library research note

You asked for annual local and regional level data, from 2019 onwards, on the number and proportion of patients waiting over 4 hours in A&E.

Data is published at NHS trust level. The attached spreadsheet contains the available trust level data from 2019 to 2023. The figures are provided for NHS trusts where consistent data can be provided back to 2019.

The figure for 6.36 million 4 hour waits in 2023 is an addition of Q4 of the 2022/23 quarterly data series and the first 3 quarters of 2023/24 - and is taken from the quarterly data tab from this NHS England file - A&E Quarterly and Annual Time Series.

This is the highest annual figure in the available series, which allow calendar year estimates to be compiled back to 2005.