A crisis measured in hours and days
New figures published by The BMJ provide a stark view of the pressure on emergency care in England. In 2025, 493,751 patients spent at least 24 hours in Type 1 emergency departments before being admitted, transferred or discharged. Within that total, 13,386 patients waited at least three days. Those are not isolated outliers. They are evidence of a system in which extreme delays have become routine enough to count at national scale.
The numbers are notable not only for their size but for their direction. The count of patients spending at least a day in A&E rose from 377,986 in 2023 to 487,608 in 2024 and then climbed again in 2025. January 2026 was reported as the worst month in the past five years, with 66,847 patients spending a full day in Type 1 emergency departments and 9,379 there for more than 48 hours.
Those figures shift the discussion from winter-pressure headlines to a broader structural problem. Experts cited in the source say extreme waits were once almost unheard of before the pandemic. Now they describe them as a year-round phenomenon affecting patients across the country.
Why long waits are a clinical issue, not just an operational one
Emergency department delays are sometimes discussed as if they are primarily an inconvenience or a symptom of poor system flow. The data in this case point to something more serious. Research has shown that patients are more likely to die if they spend more than six or 12 hours in A&E before admission. Against that backdrop, waits measured in 24, 48 or 72 hours represent not just backlog, but risk.
The article also links these delays to corridor care and other clinically inappropriate holding arrangements. According to the reporting, many of the patients waiting more than 24 hours are likely to be among the more complex cases, the people least well served by improvised spaces and prolonged uncertainty. That makes the issue especially hard to dismiss as a data artifact. The longest waits often fall on those with the greatest needs.
The human cost is reflected in a striking comment cited from the president of the Royal College of Physicians, who said she had heard patients say they would rather die at home than come into hospital and face the wait. That kind of statement carries rhetorical force because it points to something deeper than delay: a collapse in public confidence.
