'More than 300 needless A&E deaths every week'

ATOTAL of 320 patients a week may have died needlessly in England last year because of very long waits in A&E for a bed, figures show.

- By Jane Kirby

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimates there were more than 16,600 such deaths linked to waits of 12 hours of more in 2024 — an increase of a fifth on 2023.

RCEM president Dr Adrian Boyle noted that the alarming figure was “the equivalent of two aeroplanes crashing every week”.

He said: “It’s sobering, heartbreaking, devastating and more. Because this is so much more than just data and statistics.