12 September 2025
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine says it’s ‘deeply concerned’ for the winter season ahead following the release of the latest A&E performance data for England.
The statistics, published this week (11 September 2025) from NHS England, revealed 122,557 patients endured a wait of 12 hours or more last month to be admitted, discharged or transferred.
That’s one in every 11 patients.
This is the second highest number who experienced this wait since they began in 2010 for the month of August.
The data, covering August 2025, also shows:
- There were 1,383,870 attendances to major EDs – the busiest August on record
- Of these patients, 62% (858,328) were seen within the target of four hours.
- 35,909 people waited 12 hours or more after the decision to admit them to hospital was made – commonly referred to as a ‘trolley wait’. This is the highest number for the month of August on record. In the same month 10 years ago, there were just 28 patients who experienced this wait.
- On any given day last month, there were around 12,535 patients who were well enough to be discharged from hospital but couldn’t, which is often caused by the lack of appropriate social care for them. This is the highest average for delayed discharges in any August on record.
Dr Adrian Boyle, Immediate Past President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “All the signs are pointing towards yet another chaotic winter – leaving our speciality deeply concerned about what’s to come.
“Tens of thousands of people are enduring dangerous 12 hours waits. Day in, day out, people are waiting on trolleys in corridors, or any available space in the department, wondering when they will be moved to an inpatient bed.
“Earlier this year, the Health Minister said he is ‘determined to consign’ so-called corridor care ‘to the history books’. However, we haven’t seen any tangible and meaningful plan to end this reality.
“And it’s a situation that will only worsen when winter hits – which feels like it’s already knocking on our front door. We eagerly await to see plans on how the system will tackle the cold season.
“It’s disappointing to see a lot of their attention focused on league tables that compare overall hospital performance – no way helpful to address the deeper systemic issues affecting our departments.
“Our patients deserve better this winter. Our workforce deserves better this winter. Now and into the future.”