New Data From The BMJ Shows 13,000 Patients Endured Three Day Waits in England Emergency Departments

Exclusive NHS data shows 13,000 patients waited over 3 days in A&E last year. Explore the impact of England's emergency care crisis and government pledges.

By: AXL Media

Published: Apr 23, 2026, 6:16 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from EurekAlert!

The Escalation of Emergency Department Delays

A critical analysis of NHS performance data has exposed a dramatic rise in extreme waiting times within England's emergency departments. According to figures published by The BMJ, 13,386 patients were left waiting for at least three days before being admitted, transferred, or discharged in 2025. This statistic is part of a broader, alarming trend where nearly 500,000 individuals spent more than 24 hours trapped in Type 1 emergency units last year, highlighting a systemic failure to process patients effectively within the urgent care framework.

A Post Pandemic Phenomenon in Clinical Care

Medical experts have characterized these multi day waits as a relatively recent phenomenon that was virtually non existent prior to the pandemic. The data indicates that the number of patients spending a full day in A&E has surged by approximately one third since 2023. This deterioration reached a historic low in January 2026, which recorded the worst performance in five years. During that single month, 66,847 patients waited over 24 hours, including nearly 9,400 individuals who remained in emergency departments for more than 48 hours.

The Human Cost of Corridor Medicine

The physical and psychological toll on patients has become a central concern for healthcare leaders. Mumtaz Patel, president of the Royal College of Physicians, noted that the crisis has reached a point where some patients have expressed a preference to die at home rather than face the prospect of indefinite hospital waits. Research cited in the report confirms that the risk of mortality increases significantly once a patient’s wait exceeds six to twelve hours, yet many of the most complex cases are currently being managed in corridors or makeshift clinical areas.