14 August 2025
The government must heed the alarm bells ahead of winter as Emergency Departments across England experience substantial pressure over summer.
That’s the call from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine as the latest performance data, published today from NHS England, revealed 122,852 patients faced a wait of 12 hours or more last month.
This is the second highest number who endured this wait on record since they began in 2010 for the month of July.
It means one in 12 patients experienced this stay to be admitted, transferred or discharged last month.
The data, covering July 2025, also shows:
- There were 1,469,050 attendances to major EDs – the busiest July on record, the busiest month so far this year, and the second highest number of attendances on record.
- Of these patients, 63.1% (926,890) were seen within the target of four hours
- 559,392 people were admitted into hospital – that’s over 22,000 more than last month
- Hospital occupancy remains high with 92,735 beds occupied (92.1%). The level considered to be safe is 85% and more than 8,460 beds would be needed for this level to be achieved.
Dr Adrian Boyle, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said, “You just have to look at these numbers to see the intense pressure our Emergency Departments are under despite the warmer weather.
“It’s deeply concerning. If this is summer, what will winter be like?
“We have thousands of patients enduring extremely long stays, often on a trolley in a corridor, through no fault of their own, because there are no available beds on wards for them to move to.
“They are being put at risk of serious harm because the system is in crisis.
“Health leaders and policy makers need to turn their attention to the ‘back door’ of hospitals – ensuring patients who are well enough to be discharged, can be, with appropriate social care in place. Only then will we see flow through our hospitals, without patients facing lengthy delays.
“Any plans to tackle the winter months ahead must be concerted, robust and meaningful. Because if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.”