Doctors warn of ‘massive’ winter crisis in UK’s overstretched A&E departments

Emergency doctors have sounded the alarm over an approaching winter crisis that they say is already putting patients in overstretched A&E departments at risk. Nearly all medics (94%) fear patients are coming to harm because of the conditions in A&E departments around the UK, according to a snapshot survey of 83 medics from emergency departments from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM). Most (87%) are not confident their departments will cope well over the winter months, while 41% feel less prepared for this winter compared with last year.

More than four-fifths (83%) of the emergency doctors surveyed between 7 and 13 November said patients were being cared for in corridors, which can leave people stranded for hours on trolleys or chairs, while more than half (51%) had seen patients forced to wait outside emergency departments in ambulances.

The president of the RCEM, Dr Adrian Boyle, said: "This is a stark warning from those on the frontline. Clinicians are worried and patients are unsafe. Winter is coming and it looks like we are facing a massive crisis is every part of the UK. We cannot just ignore winter and our patients."

Boyle said that messaging from the government that NHS staff needed to work harder and more effectively would not work without additional funding to ease pressures in A&E this winter, for example by increasing bed numbers and improving support for social care to keep people out of hospital.

"The government may have written off winter, but we haven't. We will keep highlighting the harm, and what should be done to eradicate it, and holding them to account for the unavoidable and unacceptable risk our patients are being exposed to," he said.

An NHS England spokesperson said its teams had been working hard to "put the system in the best possible position for this winter", including through respiratory syncytial virus, flu and Covid vaccine programmes.

"This winter is likely to be another challenging one, which is why we have asked all parts of the NHS to work together to ensure that the safety and dignity of all patients, whether they are in hospital or at home, is the number one priority," the spokesperson added.

Data released last week showed that in England in October 2024, 162,931 patients waited 12 hours or more in major emergency departments, an increase of 33,919 from the previous month, more than one in every 10 patients who attended. This is the third highest monthly figure since comparable records began in 2010.

There were 2.36 million A&E attendances last month, 6% more than the previous busiest October.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "This government inherited a broken NHS where an annual winter crisis had become the norm. It will take time to turn things around but our action to quickly end the junior doctors' strike means for the first time in three years NHS leaders are planning for winter rather than preparing for strikes.

"We understand the significant concerns held by hardworking staff about the pressures they face this winter. We are already working with the trusts who tend to face the hardest pressures during winter to ensure they are better prepared this year.

"The chancellor recently announced a near £26bn boost for the NHS over this year and next. Longer-term, through our 10-year health plan, we will build an NHS that is fit for the future and delivers for patients all year round."