15 September 2025
The dire state of emergency care must be at the top of the government’s agenda, says the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) as new polling suggests ED waiting times are among the public’s biggest worries.
On 12 September 2025, the Health Foundation published its latest report on public perceptions of health and social care, based on a survey of 2,286 people across the four nations of the UK, completed in May 2025.
It found that:
- Almost a third (34%) of people rank A&E waiting times as the most important issue relating to the NHS which must be tackled.
- A&E waiting times were the second most common top-priority issue, behind only access to GP appointments (39%).
- A further 29% of people considered staff retention due to working conditions their top priority.
- The vast majority (83%) of people think that the general standard of care has not improved, or actively got worse, in the last 12 months.
- More than half (53%) think the governments of the UK have the wrong priorities for health and social care.
RCEM President Dr Ian Higginson said: “The public – people who use the NHS every day – have made it clear that improving A&E is vital and can feel that services are deteriorating. Our own figures back up their lived reality, with ED waits at unacceptable levels across the country.
“Yet, politicians seem to have other ideas. Emergency care remains at the sidelines of government plans to improve the health service.
“Unless politicians across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland listen to their constituents and act on the public’s concern, the situation will only get worse in the coming months.
“A lack of a summer respite for ED staff has left morale in the doldrums. They are dreading the inevitable winter deterioriation. Meanwhile, patients will continue to face unacceptable waits in awful conditions.
“This isn’t only about improving EDs. Bed capacity in wards, social care spaces and other system-wide changes are the only way we can dig our way out of this mess.”