Research by Royal College finds TWICE as many over 60s, per head of population, waiting more than 12 hours in NHS England’s A&E departments as in NHS Scotland – a political responsibility that can no longer be ignored there

In the Guardian today:

More than 1,300 patients a month in England are dying needlessly due to long A&E waits, a tenfold rise in a decade, figures suggest.

There were more than 300 deaths linked to long waits every week in 2025, up from 30 a week in 2015, according to analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.

The RCEM’s president, Dr Ian Higginson, said he wondered how many more deaths it would take before there was a meaningful plan to tackle the crisis.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/08/more-than-1300-deaths-a-month-in-england-due-to-long-ae-waits-figures-suggest

As far as I can see the RCEM in Scotland have not persuaded the media here that things are just as bad but BBC UK had told a similar story in January this year and we could easily disprove any such suggestion then with two reports.

First, for NHS Scotland on 14 August 2025:

‘Shocking and shameful’: 51,400 older people endured dangerous 12 hour waits in Scotland’s A&Es last year – New analysis from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine reveals record numbers of extreme long waits older patients in 2024.  

Extreme long waits in Emergency Departments across Scotland are a political responsibility that can no longer be ignored as more than 51,400 older patients endured stays of 12 hours or more last year – the worst on record.  New analysis from the Royal College of Emergency (RCEM) reveals in major EDs, one in every eight patients (51,423) aged 60 or over waited more than 12 hours to be transferred, admitted or discharged in 2024.  1

Now, for NHS England, published 6 May 2025:

‘An alarming threat to patient safety’ – over a million older patients endured 12-hour waits in England’s A&Es last year – Figures obtained by RCEM via Freedom of Information Act requests, reveal in England’s major EDs last year, a staggering 1,148,666 people aged 60 and over waited more than 12 hours to be transferred, admitted or discharged.2

Regulars here will have done the sums already.

With 10 times the population you might expect NHS England to have 10 times the numbers waiting more than 12 hours in A&E, 514 000, but they had 1 148 666, TWICE as many.

Now that’s a political responsibility that can no longer be ignored.

Sources:

  1. https://rcem.ac.uk/news/shocking-waits-in-scotlands-aes-foi-2024
  2. https://rcem.ac.uk/news/an-alarming-threat-to-patient-safety-over-a-million-older-patients-endured-12-hour-waits-in-englands-aes-last-year

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4 thoughts on “Research by Royal College finds TWICE as many over 60s, per head of population, waiting more than 12 hours in NHS England’s A&E departments as in NHS Scotland – a political responsibility that can no longer be ignored there”

  1. The BBC News website headline ‘More than 800 deaths linked to long A&E waits’ appeared on September 25, 2025. The article, about NHS Scotland, had this: ‘More than 800 deaths in Scotland last year are believed to be linked to long A&E waits, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has claimed’. The statistic is derived from the RCEM based on 12 hour or longer waits in A&E in NHS Scotland during 2024.

    To reinforce the messaging, the BBC noted: ‘This is equal to about 16 deaths a week.’

    A full array of leading opposition politicians had their say in the article, including: ‘Jackie Baillie, deputy leader of Scottish Labour, said: “For years Scots have been dying as a result of dangerously long waits in A&E, but the SNP has stood idly by while this crisis ran riot.” And: “The SNP has no idea how to fix this crisis ….”

    Forward to the RCEM’s recent report on 12 hour or longer waits in A&E in NHS England (see  https://rcem.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/RCEM_SoEM_England_A4_0326-UPDATED-FINAL.pdf ). NHS England is of course the part of the NHS for which Jackie Baillie’s Labour Party in government in Westminster has been responsible since mid 2024, promising all sorts of ‘change’!

    The RCEM is now making the following claim based on 2025 waiting times performance in NHS England’s A&E departments: ‘There were an estimated 15,860 excess deaths associated with long waits in 2025 this represents an almost ten-fold increase in the number of excess deaths over a decade. (1,657 excess deaths in 2015)’.

    To copy the prior BBC Scotland’s comment: this equates to 305 deaths per week in England based on the RCEM’s assessment. ‘

    Now the RCEM’s claim of 16 deaths per week in Scotland merited a BBC news report on its website back in late 2025.

    This latest RCEM report, published on June 6, 2026, claiming an average 305 deaths per week in England – 19 times as many as reported in the 2025 BBC article on A&E in Scotland – does NOT get reported by the BBC, not in its England section and not even in the specialist health section of its news website (unless you know differently)! No reporting of the statistic for England: no platform for politicians opposed to the Labour government in Westminster, even if they wished for one on NHS England matters which candidly, is not always evident.

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  2. two things to remember, the Uk govt want rid of over 60’s asap due to needing to save pension money and secondly – well we all know how impartial BBC Scotland is

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  3. Pingback: NHS England authorities paid £33 per patient to remove thousands of them from the lists, many still in great need – Talking-up Scotland
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