Pressures on A&E – new NHS performance data

With 2,345,934 people attending A&E units last December, the service faced their busiest month on record. 

There were some improvements in progressing the number of patients through A&E within four hours of attendance, yet this is still below the national target of 95%.

One in eight patients in major and specialty A&E departments waited for more than 12 hours, and 54,207 people waited in A&E for more than 12 hours even after a decision had been made to admit them to the hospital. 

Our Chief Executive, Louise Ansari, has said:  

“Despite record attendance in December 2024, today’s figures show that more patients progressed through A&E within four hours of attendance, 71.1%, compared to the same time last year, 69.5%. 

"However, services are still way behind reaching the national target of 95%, and there is a real risk that the interim target of 78% of patients being seen within four hours by March 2025 won’t bet met, based on current performance.

“We are very worried long waits in A&E remain the norm. 

“Pressures on A&E are having a knock-on effect on how quickly ambulances respond to calls. While life-threatening response times are similar to recent years, for emergency and non-life threatening calls, response times were the longest they’ve been since December 2022.

“Long waits for emergency care are reflected in the stories people share with us. People also tell us they wait in uncomfortable settings with little access to food, pain relief, and clean toilet facilities while the length of their waits are not well communicated to them. 

"Research shows that 14,000 extra deaths resulted from delays in the A&E in 2023.*

“Urgent action is needed to reduce the length of time people wait for emergency care. People in a health crisis deserve much better.”

*Figures from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.