Almost half a million 12-hour waits in 10 months “completely unacceptable” – SAM president (02 December)

Commenting today (2 December) in the Daily Mail on Liberal Democrat analysis which shows a record 452,595 people waited more than 12 hours in emergency departments from January to October, up from just 1,590 over the same period in 2016, Dr Vicky Price, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: “The number of people now waiting 12 hours or more in emergency departments – almost half a million in 10 months – is completely unacceptable. It is causing serious and avoidable harm yet, more worryingly, it is only the tip of the iceberg.

“Many more patients are enduring long delays before a decision to admit is made, waiting hours in triage or in waiting rooms, or being placed in temporary escalation areas, corridors or bays because hospitals are full. 

“These waits are not captured in ‘trolley-wait’ statistics which is masking the full scale of delay, overcrowding and unsafe corridor care that is now normalised across the system.

“We and many others have been highlighting the dangers of this situation every month for a number of years – yet 2025 is the worst year on record and the question is when the rise will stop.

“What is vital now is that we see real honesty about the scale of this problem and a commitment to the structural action needed to address capacity, staffing, hospital flow and social care issues that will help eliminate it, not repetition of short-term seasonal surge plans that barely scratch the surface.”