A&E overcrowding in UK ‘killing thousands a year’, say doctors

Thousands of patients a year are dying because of overcrowding in A&E units in Britain, and more fatalities will follow this winter, emergency care doctors claim.

An estimated 4,519 people in England died in 2020-21 as a direct result of people receiving less than ideal care while delayed in A&E waiting to start treatment in the hospital.

“To say this figure is shocking is an understatement. Quite simply, crowding kills,” said Dr Adrian Boyle, a vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM).

There have also been 709 deaths in Wales and 303 in Scotland so far this year for the same reason, according to a report by the college. Another 566 excess deaths caused by overcrowding occurred in Northern Ireland in 2020-21. The 4,519 in England “may be an underestimate”, it adds.

The four figures taken together mean the college has identified at least 6,097 deaths across the four home nations that it believes occurred because overcrowding hampered the person’s treatment.

“There’s a lot of human misery behind these figures. It’s uncomfortable and unbearable that people are being put through this. It’s impossible not to feel upset and angry about this,” Boyle said.

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Source: The Guardian, 18 November 2021