Top doctor warns government ‘neglecting’ old people as figures suggest thousands of A&E patients died waiting for bed

The UK's top A&E doctor has accused the government of “neglecting the oldest and sickest patients” as figures suggest a record 320 people a week may have died needlessly in A&E last year due to waits for hospital beds.

Dr Adrian Boyle, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine president, has warned that current government policy on A&E is focused on cutting waits for “cut fingers and sprained ankles” while neglecting older people, who are most likely to die and spend days on trollies.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) estimates there were more than 16,600 deaths of patients linked to long waits for a bed, an increase of a fifth on 2023 and a record since new A&E data has been published.

The figures come after the NHS’s target to see 95% of patients within four hours was cut to 78% for 2025/26. There is no national target for the number of people waiting 12 hours, the length of time linked to excess emergency care deaths, but last year more than 1.7 million patients waited 12 hours or more to be admitted, discharged or transferred from A&E.

Dr Boyle said the figures were “the equivalent of two aeroplanes crashing every week” and were devastating for families.

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Source: The Independent, 15 May 2025