Nearly 150,000 aged 90 and above wait 12 hours in England’s A&Es each year | NHS
Nearly 150,000 people aged 90 and over in England have to wait more than 12 hours in A&E each year, with some experiencing “truly shocking” waits in corridors for several days, a report says.
According to Age UK, older people are also left in their own feces and wet beds for hours, not allowed to have their pain relieved, and are forced to watch and hear other patients next to them die because they wait too long for care.
In total, more than 1 million patients aged 60 and over had to wait more than 12 hours to be transferred, admitted or discharged from type 1 emergency departments in 2024-25. One in three (33%) people aged 90 and over (149,293 people) had to wait more than 12 hours.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “What is happening to some very sick elderly people when they come to A&E is a clear-cut crisis that the government must confront and take immediate action to solve.
“No one should have to spend their final days in a hospital corridor where it is impossible for staff to provide good, compassionate care, and it is truly shocking that this is what is happening to some very old people in some hospitals today and every day.”
The report detailed how an elderly woman died of a heart attack after being left to wait; An 86-year-old man was “disappeared” by the hospital after being placed in a disused corridor; and a man who was left in a chair with an IV for 20 hours soiled himself because he could not go to the toilet.
A 79-year-old named in the report likened corridor maintenance in 2025 to historical war movies with “lines of stretchers and people suffering.”
The report also included information about “puddles of urine” on the floors because immobile patients were unable to go to the toilet and patients had to use bedpans in public corridors.
Age UK said that due to previous negative and distressing experiences, many older patients are now reluctant or even reluctant to go to A&E, even if they are facing a life-threatening condition.
One widow told the charity: “My late husband, who was very ill, was made to sit in a chair with drip tape attached… he desperately wanted to go to the toilet and there was no one to take him away. He was left with faeces in his trousers and remained that way for over 20 hours. How awful he felt; no modesty.”
Abrahams said: “Many of the stories we hear from older people and their families are heartbreaking and what is worse is that the older you get, the more likely you are, it seems, to endure a long and often uncomfortable wait.
“Aisle care and long A&E waits are like a bruise eating away at the heart of the NHS, weakening public trust and destroying the ability of committed hospital staff to take pride in a job well done. As a result, we fear that poor quality care in and around some A&E departments is now almost expected; it is a truly dire situation that we must take urgent action to reverse.”
He said ministers needed to produce a plan with specific deadlines and milestones to end long A&E waits and corridor maintenance.
“There is a lot hospitals can do to improve the situation in A&Es, but what is needed most now is for the government to step in, show decisive leadership and use all the tools at its disposal – including targets, oversight and funding – to end this crisis that is disproportionately harming our oldest.”
Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, the party’s health spokeswoman, also called on ministers to present a plan to “put an end to corridor maintenance”.
He said: “These heartbreaking stories of elderly men and women crammed into hospital corridors, left covered in their own feces, unable to drink or eat, have no place in a modern or decent society.”
Prof Nicola Ranger, of the Royal College of Nursing, described the report as “devastating” and said long A&E waits were a “moral stain” on the NHS. “No elderly or vulnerable person should be forced to endure these conditions,” he added. “It is unsafe, undignified and unacceptable.
“Overloaded and understaffed nursing teams work hard every day to deliver the best care, but they face an impossible task… The reality is that nursing staff and patients are being set up to fail by a system that doesn’t work.”
NHS Providers Daniel Elkeles said the Age UK report was “shocking” and highlighted why urgent investment in buildings and equipment was needed to increase capacity.
Rory Deighton of the NHS Confederation called for “viable alternatives” to A&E, including better access to GPs for some patients, walk-in centers and local support for falls and frailty.
Health minister Karin Smyth MP described the report as “heartbreaking”. “No one should receive corridor care; it is unacceptable, it is undignified and we are determined to put an end to it,” he said.
He added that the government was investing £450 million in new urgent and urgent care centres, buying 500 ambulances and building 40 mental health crisis centres.
