Almost 19,000 NHS patients were left waiting in accident and emergency (A&E) departments for three days over a 12-month period, according to an investigation. Between April 2023 and March 2024, nearly 400,000 people waited more than 24 hours, a 5 per cent increase on the previous year, and 54,000 waited more than two days.
Channel 4's Dispatches programme sent an undercover reporter to work as a trainee healthcare assistant at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital for two months, exposing what it described as 'suffering and indignity' faced by patients. Footage showed a patient waiting 30 hours in a 'fit to sit' area and a suspected stroke sufferer there for 24 hours.
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: 'I don't think this is unique to this hospital... The things we've seen here today are clearly not just confined to winter. It was a year-round crisis in emergency care.' He added that spending two days in an emergency department is 'worse than spending two days in an airport lounge'.
Clips from the investigation showed an elderly man forced to urinate in a trolley in full view of staff and other patients, and a woman left crying in agony for hours. A total of 18,638 people waited more than three days, a 60 per cent rise on the previous period.
A spokesperson for the hospital trust said: 'As with other hospitals, our trust is facing significant challenges... We are very sorry that our patients have experienced anything less than the quality care we strive for.' The trust said it disputed some claims but would investigate fully.
Separate figures from the King's Fund show more than one in four people waited longer than the four-hour target in A&E, and patients waited an average of 33 minutes for an ambulance in emergency cases, against an 18-minute target.
