ENGLAND A&E WAIT TIMES LED TO NEEDLESS DEATHS OF UP TO 14,000, DATA SUGGESTS

lmost 14,000 people died needlessly last year in England while waiting in A&E for up to 12 hours a new estimate suggests.

Calculations by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) based on a large study of excess deaths and waiting times show that 268 people are likely to have died each week in 2023 because of excessive waits in emergency departments.

The estimate used a study of more than 5 million NHS patients published in the Emergency Medicine Journal in 2021, which found one excess death for every 72 patients who spent eight to 12 hours in an A&E department.

The risk of death started to increase after five hours and got worse with longer waiting times, the study found.The RCEM previously said it believed 300 to 500 excess deaths were likely to have occurred in England each week in 2022, based on this calculation, but it has since carried out a freedom of information audit of NHS trusts to refine its figures.lmost 14,000 people died needlessly last year in England while waiting in A&E for up to 12 hours a new estimate suggests.

Calculations by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) based on a large study of excess deaths and waiting times show that 268 people are likely to have died each week in 2023 because of excessive waits in emergency departments.

The estimate used a study of more than 5 million NHS patients published in the Emergency Medicine Journal in 2021, which found one excess death for every 72 patients who spent eight to 12 hours in an A&E department.

The risk of death started to increase after five hours and got worse with longer waiting times, the study found.The RCEM previously said it believed 300 to 500 excess deaths were likely to have occurred in England each week in 2022, based on this calculation, but it has since carried out a freedom of information audit of NHS trusts to refine its figures.