71-fold rise in 24-hour “trolley waits” with almost 50,000 last year as Lib Dems call for NHS ‘super-heads’ to save failing Trusts
EMBARGO: 22.30 20th April 2025
- There were 49,000 waits of 24-hours or longer from a decision to admit to a patient finding a bed in A&E last year - up 71-fold on 2019’s figure of 689
- Pensioners accounted for almost 70% of all 24-hour trolley waits last year with 33,000 - up from 441 in 2019
- Some patients experienced trolley waits of up to 10 days, with a pensioner waiting close to six days last year
- The Liberal Democrats said the figures were “harrowing” and called on the Government to create a new team of NHS ‘super-heads’ to go into failing NHS Trusts and bring them up to standard
Liberal Democrats are calling for NHS ‘super-heads’ to go into failing Trusts and bring them up to standard, as new FOI data reveals there were 49,000 trolley waits of 24-hours or longer last year. This is up 71-fold on 2019, with some patients waiting up to 10 days from a decision to admit.
54 of the 141 NHS Trusts responded to the FOIs with full data, meaning the 49,000 24-hour trolley waits is likely far higher. Of the 49,000 24-hour trolley waits, 70% of these were experienced by those aged 65 or older, meaning pensioners accounted for 33,000 trolley waits last year. A trolley wait is the time patients wait to be admitted onto a ward after the decision to admit has been made.
The figures represent a stark increase on 2019’s figure of just 689. 2024’s number of 52,000 is 71-times higher than in 2019. The increase in these long trolley waits for pensioners has been even sharper, rising 76-fold in the past six years from 441 to 33,000. There was also a major jump in waits on 2023, from 41,000 to 49,000 last year, a rise of 20%.
At some trusts the rise in these long waits was even more stark. In East Kent there was a 297 times rise in 24-hour long waits from 30 in 2019 to 8,900 last year. At Liverpool University’s NHS Trust there was a 430-fold rise from just 10 to 4,300 and in Warrington and Halton there were 0 in 2019, now that number stands at 3,100.
East Kent’s NHS Trust saw the highest number of day or longer trolley waits last year with 8,900. It is up from just 30 in 2019. It was followed by Liverpool University Hospitals Trust with 4,300 and then University Hospitals Leicester with 3,146. 48 of the 54 Trusts who responded had seen an increase in 24-hour trolley waits.
The FOIs also asked what the longest trolley wait each NHS Trust has recorded in the past year was. At James Paget University Hospitals Trust a patient waited 235 hours, the equivalent of 10 and a half days before being admitted following a decision being made. James Pages University Hospitals Trust also had the longest trolley wait for someone aged 65 or over where one pensioner waited 139 hours or almost six days before being admitted.
These delays can be deadly. Previous analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine found that by the time a patient reaches a stay of more than 12 hours in an Emergency Department, they are twice as likely to die within 30 days as those treated, admitted or discharged within two hours. The RCEM calculated that there were almost 14,000 deaths associated with long A&E stays before admission in 2023.
There have also been harrowing stories this winter of patients dying in corridors and glorified cupboards as A&Es struggled to cope with the growing pressure. Some NHS Trusts have even started advertising positions for ‘corridor care nurses’ to work shifts in their corridors and provide care there.
The Liberal Democrats, who conducted the research, said the figures were “harrowing” and called on the Government to end corridor care by the end of the Parliament.
The party said this should be done by creating a Winterproofing NHS Taskforce as well as creating a new team of ‘super-heads’ made up of experienced NHS heads who would go into struggling NHS Trusts and use their expertise to bring them up to standard. The scheme would work in a similar way to one previously used in schools where experienced and respected head-teachers were sent into struggling schools to turn them around.
Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson, Helen Morgan MP said:
“The least patients deserve is the dignity to be treated in an appropriate area. Not the ramshackled waiting rooms and corridors that far too many have to suffer through for hours. That is why the Government must ensure that this is the last winter crisis anyone will experience and end corridor care by the end of this Parliament.
“The Conservatives’ beyond shameful neglect brought us to this point but the Labour government’s approach of sitting on its hands and hoping it all gets better has not survived contact with reality. Corridor care has become normalised to the point that hospitals are now advertising for specialised nurses to treat patients in hallways.
“This cannot go on any longer. Liberal Democrats are calling for a new Winterproofing taskforce, alongside a team of experienced NHS heads who can go into failing NHS Trusts and bring them up to the standard patients deserve.”
ENDS
Notes to Editor:
The research by the Liberal Democrats can be found here.
The RCEM analysis can be found here.
Reporting on patients dying in glorified cupboards and corridors can be found here and here.
Reporting on Trusts advertising for corridor care nurses can be found here.
Liberal Democrat plans to “winterproof” the NHS:
The Liberal Democrats are calling for a Winter Taskforce to be created which would, for the first time, bring together a team of experts reporting directly to the Health Secretary, responsible for strengthening coordination across the NHS and allocating long-term funding and resources to prevent winter crises.
Under the Liberal Democrat proposal, the new Taskforce would instead manage a ringfenced fund of £1.5 billion over the next four years, to build resilience in hospital wards, A&E departments, ambulance services and patient discharging. This would allow integrated care boards and NHS Trusts to plan their budgets more efficiently to prevent winter crises, instead of just receiving emergency funding from the government at the last minute.
