One in 10 patients spent over 12 hours in A&E in 2025

One in 10 patients spent over 12 hours in A&E in 2025 One in 10 patients who attended major A&E units in England last year spent more than 12 hours there, a BBC analysis shows. During 2025, 1.75 million patients waited that long to be treated and discharged or found a bed on a ward - only marginally better than in 2024. It comes as the Royal College of Nursing warned long waits and corridor care - where patients are left for hours in make-shift areas - was having a devastating impact. The union published testimonies from members across the UK describing unsafe and undignified care, with one nurse saying animals were treated better at vets. The government said it was unacceptable, but it was still dealing with the legacy it inherited. Health Secretary Wes Streeting acknowledged corridor care remained a problem, saying the NHS was "falling short". "It should never be normalised," he added. He said he was committed to ending the practice before the end of the parliament and would soon start publishing data on it to ensure transparency. But he said on some measures, such as ambulance response times, there had been improvement compared to last year. And in other areas of care he said patients were "starting to feel the difference", pointing to progress being made on the hospital waiting list. On corridor care, RCN members described feeling ashamed and embarrassed about the situation, saying patients were being crammed into corridors and treated in kitchens, dining areas and side rooms. In one case a nurse reported how a patient had died after choking undetected in a corridor, while others said they had to hold up sheets around patients while performing intimate procedures. One nurse in the north west of England said: "It breaks my heart being in work and there being a patient, usually elderly, on the corridor and coming back two days later and them still being there." Another for the south west described the system as broken and patients having to go through a "type of torture", while another nurse added: "We would not treat animals like this in a veterinary practice, so why in a hospital?" RCN general secretary Prof Nicola Ranger said the testimonies showed the "devastating human consequences" of the pressures in hospitals. She was speaking after a spate of hospitals declared critical incidents during the first two weeks of the new year. At one - Nottingham University Hospital - managers warned there were patients on corridors and apologised for the "significant and unacceptable delays" in A&E. The BBC has seen the impact of the pressures first hand. This month our teams have filmed inside Leicester Royal Infirmary where staff describe "relentless pressure" and the daily challenge of "maintaining a patient's dignity whilst on a corridor". Doctors and nurses told the BBC they were struggling to find beds for some of the hospital's most vulnerable patients, with older people often left waiting overnight on plastic chairs for eight or nine hours....

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