Commenting on the latest NHS performance data published today (15 January), Dr Vicky Price, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: “Today’s data shows more than 50,700 patients waited over 12 hours from the decision to admit to actually reaching a bed – an increase on the previous month and equivalent to more than 1,600 patients every day.
“In our own snapshot of 44 acute medical units across the four nations this week, evidence shows hospitals are starting every day already overwhelmed.
“Around 50% of units report more than 20 patients waiting for a medical bed in emergency departments, nearly 90% report waits exceeding 12 hours, and over 40% are using same-day emergency care areas for admitted patients because there is nowhere else to put them.
“The clinical consequences of this are well established. For every 72 patients waiting eight to twelve hours for admission, one excess death occurs. That evidence has been clear for years, yet we are further than ever from a solution.
“Patients receiving corridor care are typically older, frail and living with multiple long-term conditions, often alongside mental health needs. These are people least able to withstand long waits in unsafe, overcrowded environments – and yet they are increasingly exposed to them.
“These figures describe a system stretched beyond safe limits and the extent of corridor care now being delivered is the predictable result of years of failure to invest in beds, workforce and social care.
“Without urgent action to expand bed capacity, stabilise staffing and restore flow through hospitals, patients will continue to experience avoidable harm.
“Successive governments have claimed to prioritise urgent and emergency care, including acute medicine, yet delivery has consistently fallen short – and, currently, it continues to do so.”