RCEM describes record 12-hour ‘trolley waits’ as ‘a catastrophe’

13 February 2025

Heath leaders must act to reduce dangerous and unacceptable 12-hour pre-admission A&E stays as new data reveals last month saw the highest number of these types of waits ever recorded.

That’s the response from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine which has issued a to call to action following the revelation, branding the situation a ‘catastrophe’.

The latest A&E performance data published by NHS England released today (13 February 2025) and which covers January 2025, showed that 61,529 people waited 12 hours or more after the decision to admit them to hospital was made.

These stays are referred to as ‘trolley waits’.

However, the definition only relates to the time the patient stays in the Emergency Department after it was decided they needed inpatient care – it does not include any time a person may have waited before that.

Meaning that the time a person actually stays in the department before getting moved to a ward may be significantly longer.

RCEM President Dr Adrian Boyle said: “The highest ever number of patients experiencing these excessive so called ‘trolley waits’ is nothing short of a catastrophe.

“Extremely long A&E stays while waiting for a ward bed are not just undignified and uncomfortable – they are dangerous.

“In 2023 we calculated that there were almost 14,000 deaths associated with these long stays – and we believe that the figures for 2024 will be worse.

“And just last month the ONS again evidenced the serious risk that long waits in Emergency Departments create.

“In January over 60,000 people – more than one in every 10 – who went on to be admitted, waited at least 12 hours after that decision was made.

“And, as has been so clearly evidenced, these waits are often endured on trolleys in corridors or cupboards, or chairs in waiting rooms. The focus has to shift to addressing these stays.

“The convenient narrative is that this issue is caused by winter viruses alone. Of course they don’t help, but this is a perennial problem.

“This situation cannot be allowed to continue. Health leaders, in NHSE and the government must act. Failing to do so will mean more lives will be lost because of an issue which is ultimately preventable.”

The statistic is from the monthly A&E Performance data released by NHSE covering January 2025.

It also shows:

1,359,026 people attended a major Emergency Department (Type-1)

Of these, 172,515 patients waited 12 hours or more from their time of arrival

When all beds (adults and children) are considered hospital occupancy rates were 94.2% which rises to 96% for just adult beds.

Each day there was a daily average of 13,688 patients who were considered to be medically well enough to leave who remained in hospital.

Also released today was NHSE’s Situation Report Data for the week of 3 February to 9 February 2025. These are updates published during the high-pressure winter months.

They show:

There was a daily average of 14,087 patients who no longer met the criteria to reside in hospital but had not yet been discharged (up from 13,776 from the previous week).

There was an average of 1,940 beds occupied by flu patients per day (reducing from the week before when the figure was 2,462).

NHSE reports that 948 patients a day in hospital with norovirus which is only slightly down on the previous week (961)

Responding to today’s data Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting MP, said the Government intends to publish its plan to improve urgent and emergency care services ‘soon’.

* Graphical representation of the data can be found here and more details of all RCEM’s analysis is here.