In an alarming recent report released exclusively by The BMJ, data from the year 2025 reveal an unprecedented crisis unfolding within England’s Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments. The figures indicate that 13,386 patients endured wait times exceeding three full days for treatment in emergency departments, a stark reflection of the escalating pressures facing the National Health Service (NHS). This troubling trend is part of a much broader issue, where nearly half a million patients—precisely 493,751 individuals—spent more than 24 hours trapped within the clinical confines of NHS emergency care. These patients’ prolonged stays occurred before their eventual admission to hospital wards, transfers to other facilities, or discharge. The magnitude of this situation demonstrates a systemic failure in delivering timely emergency care.
The evolution of A&E wait times has been nothing short of catastrophic. Comparing the years 2023 through 2025, there is a clear upward trajectory. In 2023, the number of patients spending at least a day in A&E was markedly lower than in subsequent years; however, 2025 saw a one-third increase in these prolonged wait durations. January 2026 stands out as a particularly dire month, recording the most egregious delays in the past half-decade. Specifically, 66,847 patients spent an entire day in Type 1 emergency departments, accounting for nearly 5% of all attendances. Of these, 9,379 individuals were subjected to waits extending beyond 48 hours—an indicator of clinical risk and operational dysfunction.
Medical experts are sounding urgent warnings about the deleterious consequences of such prolonged emergency care wait times. This issue, which has been virtually absent prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, has now transformed into a nationwide crisis compromising patient safety and well-being. Extended durations in A&E, especially in suboptimal settings, are linked directly to adverse outcomes, including increased risk of mortality, heightened stress, and complications arising from delayed interventions. The phenomenon of “corridor care,” wherein patients are forced to remain for upwards of 45 minutes in hallways or similarly inappropriate clinical spaces due to overcrowding, further exemplifies the degraded quality of emergency care currently faced.
In response to growing public concern and mounting political pressure, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has publicly acknowledged the shame engendered by corridor care practices and reaffirmed a commitment to eliminate such conditions in NHS hospitals by 2029. However, this commitment must be contextualized against the scale of the challenge highlighted by The BMJ’s data. In 2025 alone, the number of patients experiencing waits exceeding 24 hours further increased from 487,608 in 2024 and starkly surpassed the 377,986 reported in 2023. These figures underline a trajectory toward diminishing capacity and rising systemic inefficiencies rather than any marked improvement.
Despite some reduction in the most extreme cases—those involving waits longer than 72 hours, which have decreased from a 2023 peak of 19,579—the overall crisis in prolonged emergency waits deepens. Crucially, this crisis no longer appears confined to the winter months or specific periods of high demand but has transformed into a persistent, year-round challenge for healthcare providers. For instance, data from April and May 2025 indicate that over 35,000 patients faced waits exceeding 24 hours during each of these months—figures that are more than double the equivalent figures from January 2022.
The implications of these protracted waits extend beyond operational metrics; they have a tangible human cost. Peer-reviewed research has illuminated that patients admitted to hospital after spending over six to 12 hours within emergency care departments face a higher likelihood of adverse mortality outcomes. This unsettling evidence echoes the testimony of clinical leaders such as Mumtaz Patel, President of the Royal College of Physicians, who relates chilling accounts from patients expressing a preference for death at home rather than enduring the humiliations and dangers of NHS emergency waits. Such sentiments underscore a crisis of confidence as well as care quality within the realm of emergency medicine.
The profile of patients bearing the brunt of these delays is especially concerning. The BMJ’s expert sources indicate that individuals with complex, severe clinical presentations—those requiring nuanced and urgent attention—are often the same demographic forced to wait over 24 hours, frequently in corridors or improvised clinical areas not originally designed for extended patient care. This exacerbates risks of clinical deterioration, possibly increasing the workload on healthcare staff and stretching already strained resources.
In an effort to enhance transparency, NHS England has pledged to begin the monthly publication of corridor care statistics starting from May 2026. Additionally, Health Secretary Streeting has announced the deployment of expert teams targeted at the trusts suffering the worst delays. However, health policy analysts voice skepticism regarding the efficacy of these measures, predicting that such interventions may fall short without systemic reform encompassing staffing, infrastructure, and care pathway redesign.
The breadth and persistence of the A&E waiting times crisis reveal fundamental fractures within the NHS emergency care system. Operational bottlenecks, driven by rising patient volumes and insufficient inpatient capacity, elicit cascading effects throughout the entire acute healthcare pathway. Emergency departments are placed in untenable positions, managing both high-acuity cases and elective admissions delayed by bed shortages, with corridor care becoming an unfortunate norm rather than an exception. Without urgent and multifaceted policy attention, these dysfunctions risk becoming deeply entrenched.
The human dimension of this crisis cannot be overstated: protracted waits in emergency departments often mean patients spend critical hours in distressing uncertainty, deprived of standard clinical oversight and comfort. The prevalence of “corridor care” practices vividly illustrates how systemic capacity constraints morph into diminished standards of dignity and safety. As these conditions persist, the challenge for the NHS will be balancing resource allocation, rapid patient flow, and clinical quality without compromise.
In sum, the data emerging from The BMJ’s exclusive analysis presents a sobering portrait of England’s A&E departments at a breaking point. Patients languishing for days in emergency settings is no longer a rare aberration but a disturbing and ongoing reality. While policy initiatives promise rectification in the years ahead, the immediate landscape demands urgent, data-driven interventions capable of restoring trust and functional capacity to the NHS’s frontline emergency services.
Subject of Research: Not applicable
Article Title: A&E crisis: Data show 13,386 patients waited over three days in England’s emergency departments as patients say “they’d rather die at home”
News Publication Date: 22-Apr-2026
Web References: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s756
Keywords: Emergency medicine, A&E waits, NHS crisis, corridor care, patient safety, UK healthcare system, prolonged emergency waits
