17 April 2026
Northern Irish policymakers must address the “catastrophe” unfolding in EDs, as the estimated number of people who may have died due to long Emergency Department waits more than doubled in five years.
That’s the key message from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, following the publication of its State of Emergency Medicine in Northern Ireland report today (17 April).
In 2025, a total of 1,032 excess deaths were associated with waits of 12 or more hours in Northern Irish EDs while awaiting admission, the report reveals.
That year-long figure is the equivalent of almost 20 lives lost each week.
While the overall death figure is slightly lower than in 2024 (1,122) and 2023 (1,063), the report, concerningly, showed that the estimated mortality figure has more than doubled over five years.
In 2020, the estimated mortality figure was less than half of what it was in 2025 – at 461. A decade ago, in 2016, there were just 60 excess deaths attributed to long waits.
Dr Michael Perry, Northern Ireland Vice President for the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “
“Behind these numbers are stories of families ripped apart by avoidable deaths which have happened because successive governments have failed to grab the ED crisis by the horns.
“We must not let the slight reduction on the previous year give us false assurance that the problem is being fixed. Such a glacial pace of progress is not good enough.
“Our health service has the highest rates of long waits in EDs, and deaths per capita resulting from them, of any UK nation. That statement should shock our policymakers to the core.
“Politicians and system leaders need to treat this like the catastrophe in need of redress that it is.”
Today’s report also outlines how overcrowding and long waits in EDs is not the result of an increase in demand. The number of people attending departments has barely changed, while the number of long waits, and deaths, has skyrocketed.
It also lays out RCEM’s key recommendations for the Northern Ireland Executive, which must commit to eradicating corridor care and mortality associated with long ED waits by the end of the decade.
Dr Perry continued: “The good news is that this is a fixable problem. While, sadly, we cannot help the loved ones who have already experienced a bereavement at the hands of a broken system, we know what measures can prevent future heartbreak.
“Our report contains the answers. Accountability, a whole-system approach to patient flow and targets to ending corridor care and deaths associated with long waits will make the difference.
“We look forward to hearing from policymakers eager to put these measures in place.”
The report recommended that the Northern Irish Executive:
- End corridor care and mortality associated with long waits in EDs by the end of the decade
- Adopt a whole-system approach to ending ED overcrowding, with responsibility for performance spread across the entire patient pathway
- Ensure accountability for ending overcrowding
- Implement measures to make excess deaths associated with long waits in ED to be treated with the same seriousness as deaths in other medical specialties
More information on these recommendations, and the stats, can be found in the full report here.