Thousands of older people waiting in A&E for up to three days

New data revealing the ‘devastating’ impact of corridor care on older people has prompted fresh calls for investment into services in the community and social care.

In 2024/25 there were more than 100,000 instances of over-65s waiting between one and three days in A&E after a decision to admit them had been made, according to new NHS England data obtained by leading charity Age UK.

In more than half (almost 54,000) of these cases, these older people were aged 80 or over.

The charity said the situation was ‘utterly soul destroying’ for hospital nurses and doctors, and ‘extremely frightening’ for older people.

Age UK has set out several demands of the government to overturn the situation, including that action is taken to improve discharge arrangements into the community, bolster social care capacity and swiftly implement neighbourhood health services.

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The data follows renewed concerns raised by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) last week about the state of corridor care, including a warning that staff morale was being pushed to ‘the point of no return’.

Commenting on Age UK’s analysis, RCN general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said investment outside of hospitals was ‘crucial’ to turning around what she described as a ‘dire situation’.

‘These devastating findings mirror the testimony of nursing staff about the lack of dignity afforded to the elderly,’ she said.

‘No one, let alone those at their most vulnerable, should be forced to receive treatment in corridors and other inappropriate spaces. It is unsafe, utterly demeaning and should be a source of national shame.’

She added: ‘More often than not, these patients shouldn’t be in hospital, but a lack of community services and social care provision means there is nowhere else for them to go.

‘Everyone deserves safe and dignified care but the reality is that investment outside of hospitals is crucial if the government is to turn this dire situation around.’

Professor Ranger reiterated the RCN’s calls for a ‘fully funded action plan with a timeline for the eradication of corridor care’.

‘The plan has to include investment to boost beds and nurse numbers in hospitals but, crucially, measures to increase capacity and access to services in community and social care, helping to keep people well at home and ease pressures on NHS services. It must mark a turning point,’ she said.

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The FOI figures obtained by Age UK found that in 2024/25, the most recent year for which figures are available, there were 101,972 instances of people aged 65 plus enduring waits of between one and three days in A&E after a decision to admit them had been made. Some 53% of those (53,870) of the older people affected were aged 80 or over.

The data relates to attendances at type 1 Emergency Departments in England and was grouped by NHS England between one and three days into a single category.

The charity said that, according to NHS England, any waits recorded above three days were likely to be the result of data quality issues and are only included as part of the number of total attendances.

However, Age UK said it had heard of accounts of people waiting ‘even longer than three days’.

Caroline Abrahams, Age UK charity director, said: ‘Waiting for more than 24 hours, often on a hard chair in a corridor or other overspill area, when you are extremely unwell, in pain, probably alone, maybe fearing for your life, would be horrific at any age, let alone if you are in your eighties or beyond. And yet this is happening day in, day out in the worst affected hospitals, to the extent that it’s become routine.’

She added: ‘We should all be ashamed that this is what we’ve come to in some hospitals, it’s utterly soul destroying for doctors and nurses, and extremely frightening for older people who know they may need to go to A&E one day.’

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A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘These stories are shocking and appalling, and our thoughts go out to all those who have faced difficult experiences in A&E.’

They said the government had invested ‘almost £450m in urgent and emergency care, delivered hundreds of thousands more vaccinations to protect the vulnerable and are building new same day emergency centres and mental health crisis centres’.

‘We have also delivered over five million additional appointments, cut waiting lists by 312,000, and launched our 10 Year Health Plan which will deliver more care in the community to ease pressure on hospitals. We will soon be publishing data on corridor care, as sunlight is the best disinfectant.’