An 86-year-old grandmother was left "rolling over in pain" during a 30-hour A&E wait, her family has said. Joan Jones was rushed to the Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan, Greater Manchester, by ambulance in the early hours of October 18 after suffering a collapsed gallbladder. She was sent to A&E, where she endured the lengthy wait after allegedly being told by a nurse she wasn't a priority.
Family witnesses criminals treated first
During those 30 hours, her son Barry Jones, 62, from Ashton-in-Makerfield, Greater Manchester, said he watched in despair as alleged criminals brought in by police were admitted for treatment immediately. Mr Jones said: "The situation was unbelievable. Mum was so tired and weak. Even other people in the waiting room were saying, 'what's she doing in here?'. Police were bringing [alleged] criminals in and they were going straight in to get treatment. The whole system is upside down. It's wrong that those people are getting seen first."
Furious Mr Jones said his mum was eventually given a pillow and put on a trolley bed in the hospital corridor, but only after repeatedly asking nursing staff for help. Angela, Joan's daughter, said her mother had been put through a "traumatic experience" at the hospital, adding elderly patients were being "let down" despite having paid into the system that should be supporting them their whole lives.
Hospital downgraded by watchdog
The experience came after the infirmary was found to be among the worst in the country for wait times. A Care Quality Commission (CQC) report from September downgraded urgent and emergency care at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary from "good" to "requires improvement" after patient concerns were raised. The report stated that the trust was "among the worst in England" for people spending upwards of 12 hours in its emergency department, with more than 900 people saying they faced such stays in the month prior to the inspection. The report called for "rapid improvements", and after it was delivered the trust said it was "working hard" to make them.
While severe, the infirmary is not the exception to the rule in the UK, with 12-hour waits for a hospital bed having surged in recent years, reports the BBC.
Corridor care crisis deepens
According to NHS England data, the number of people waiting more than 12 hours following a decision to admit - also known as a trolley or corridor wait - has increased exponentially per quarter. The quarter ending March 2015 reported that just under 1,000 people were subject to these waits, while the amount exploded to more than 155,000 in the quarter ending March 2025. The latest data from September 2026 shows that 129,199 people were left waiting four hours before admission, roughly 4,307 per day. The same data showed 50,582 more than 12-hour waits that month alone - 1,686 per day, up from 44,951 in August.
The figures also showed that an average of 3,310 patients in England received corridor care each day in September, split between 2,549 in A&E departments and 761 in other hospital areas. Ending corridor care has become a key priority of Health Secretary Yvette Cooper, who said on October 18 that she had asked the NHS to draw up urgent plans to speed up ending the practice for children.
That came after the case of Finlay Roberts, two, who spent hours in a busy A&E corridor shortly before he died. Finlay's mum Liz Roberts, from north London, said: "I think it's very difficult to assess how unwell somebody is when you're sitting in a corridor with everything going on around you. The reality was he was the sickest person there, that evening. Just a few hours later, he'd be back there and they'd be saying that he had died."
Government and trust respond
Ms Cooper said there would be new standards for caring for children in English A&Es, and that figures on corridor care by age would be released for the first time. Age UK estimates that older Brits are disproportionately impacted by corridor care, with one in 10 people aged between 50 and 59 waiting 12 hours or more. The number rises to one third, the charity estimates, when the hospital waits of people aged 90 and older are considered.
Health and Social Care Secretary Yvette Cooper told The Mirror: "For Joan and her family to have to go through this is just awful, and incredibly distressing. Nobody should be treated on a trolley or in a corridor, or have to endure this kind of wait in our A&Es. We cannot accept this standard of care, particularly when people are at their most vulnerable. We have a major turnaround programme underway across the NHS, after years in which it was neglected, but there is a lot of essential work to do, especially for hospitals to turnaround A&E, and I have made clear that tackling corridor care must be a priority. On Sunday, we announced £140million for 14 more urgent care schemes, on top of the 25 due to open in time for this winter, to boost NHS capacity, free up hospital beds and help tackle the unacceptable corridor care and waits so patients like Joan are treated quickly and in an appropriate space."
Layla Moran, chair of the health and social care committee, said: "Joan's agonising experience should shock us all. Whilst this happened at a hospital known to be underperforming, alarm bells are sounding across this country's A&Es that waiting times and corridor care are likely to ramp up as winter approaches. The Health and Social Care Committee has requested an evidence session with ministers on how the government is preparing the health service for winter pressures so that what should be extreme cases like this can hopefully be kept to a minimum."
Mary Fleming, the CEO of the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL), said in a statement that she was sorry to hear about the family's concerns. She said: "We welcome the opportunity to speak with her family directly, understand their concerns and provide any additional support we can. Because of increased demand across our urgent and emergency care services and delays in discharge, some patients are experiencing longer waits than we would ever want. We understand how worrying and stressful it can be when someone you love needs urgent care." Ms Fleming added that the hospital is trying to reduce wait times following "unprecedented demand" for its services, saying: "We're working hard to develop alternatives to Emergency Department but while we do experience periods of unprecedented demand, we will continue to treat patients in order of clinical priority and to ensure people receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time."
