Shock 250% rise in patients waiting more than 4 hours in A&E: Six-month total soars by 146,000 - as Labour says crisis is worst in 20 years
Hundreds of thousands more patients are being forced to wait longer than four hours for emergency care as A&E departments across the country struggle due to closures and staff shortages. Official NHS data reveals a growing crisis in England’s A&E wards with one in every three patients now waiting four hours or more for emergency treatment in the worst affected areas. The figures, released by the Department of Health on Friday, show that during the week up to April 7, 33,225 patients were forced to wait longer than four hours compared with 13,081 in the same week last year, a rise of 250 per cent. Official NHS data has revealed one in every three patients in England's A&E wards now wait four hours or more for emergency treatment in the worst affected areas An additional 146,000 patients waited more than four hours to be seen in casualty in the six months between October and April compared with the same six-month period during the previous yea