Adrian O’Dowd , 2025-05-15 13:31:00
The number of people dying prematurely after long waits in hospital emergency departments before admission rose by a fifth in England last year, an analysis has found.
The analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine found that in 2024 there were 16 644 associated excess deaths related to stays of 12 hours or longer before hospital admittance. This was an increase of almost 20% (2725) on the 13 919 such deaths in 2023.
The figures were announced on 15 May by college president Adrian Boyle at the launch of the newly formed all party parliamentary group (APPG) on emergency care, an informal cross party group that will engage with healthcare professionals and organisations to seek improvements in urgent and emergency care, with the group’s secretariat function provided by the royal college.
For its analysis the college obtained figures from NHS England under the Freedom of …
