Nearly 150,000 aged 90 and above wait 12 hours in England’s A&Es each year | NHS

Nearly 150,000 people aged 90 and over in England are forced to wait more than 12 hours in emergency departments every year, with some enduring “truly shocking” waits of days stuck in corridors, a report warns.

Older people are also left in their own excrement and in wet beds for hours, deprived of pain relief and forced to watch and hear other patients die next to them because they end up waiting so long for care, according to Age UK.

In total, more than one million patients aged 60 and over had to wait more than 12 hours to be transferred, admitted or discharged from Type 1 emergency departments in 2024-25. One in three people (33%) aged 90 or over – 149,293 – were forced to wait more than 12 hours.

Caroline Abrahams, director of the charity Age UK, said: “What happens to some very ill older people when they come to A&E is a crisis hidden in plain sight and one that the Government must face and take immediate action to resolve.

“No one should have to spend their final days in a hospital corridor where it is impossible for staff to provide quality, compassionate care, and it is truly shocking that this is what is happening to some very elderly people in some hospitals today and every day. »

The report details how an elderly woman died of a heart attack after having to wait; an 86-year-old man was “lost” by the hospital after being placed in a disused corridor; and a man left on an IV drip in a chair for 20 hours soiled himself because he couldn’t go to the bathroom.

A 79-year-old man cited in the report compared hallway care in 2025 to historical war films with “lines of stretchers and people suffering.”

The report also noted “puddles of urine” on floors, with immobile patients unable to go to the toilet and patients forced to use bedpans in public corridors.

Age UK said that due to previous negative and upsetting experiences, many elderly patients were now reluctant, or even unwilling, to go to the emergency department, even if faced with a life-threatening situation.

One widow told the charity: “My late husband, very ill, on a drip, was put in a chair… he desperately wanted to go to the toilet and there was no one to take him. He ended up with faeces in his pants and remained in that state for over 20 hours. How horrible he felt – no shame.”

Abrahams said: “Many of the stories we have heard from older people and their families are heartbreaking and, to make matters worse, the older you are, the more likely you are, it seems, to endure a long and often uncomfortable wait.

“Corridor care and long waits in emergency departments are like a rot eating away at the heart of the NHS, undermining public trust and destroying the ability of committed hospital staff to take pride in a job well done. As a result, we fear that poor quality care in and around some emergency departments is now almost expected – a truly dire situation which we must act urgently to turn around.”

Ministers should develop a plan to end long waits in emergency rooms and corridor care, with clear deadlines and milestones, she said.

“Hospitals themselves can do a lot to improve the situation in their emergency departments, but what is needed now is for the Government to act, show determined leadership and use every lever at its disposal – including targets, inspection and funding – to end this crisis, which is disproportionately hitting our oldest.

Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, the party’s health spokeswoman, also urged ministers to bring forward a plan to “end corridor care”.

She said: “These harrowing stories – of elderly men and women crowded into hospital corridors, left in their own excrement, unable to eat or drink – have no place in a modern or decent society. »

Professor Nicola Ranger, from the Royal College of Nursing, described the report as “devastating” and said long waits in emergency departments were “a moral stain” on the NHS. “No elderly or vulnerable person should be forced to endure these conditions,” she added. “It is dangerous, undignified and unacceptable.

“Overworked and understaffed nursing teams work hard every day to provide the best care, but they face an impossible task…The reality is that nurses and patients are set up to fail because of a system that simply doesn’t work.

Daniel Elkeles, of NHS Providers, said the Age UK report was “shocking” and highlighted why urgent investment in buildings and equipment was needed to increase capacity.

Rory Deighton, of the NHS Confederation, called for “viable alternatives” to emergency rooms for some patients, including better access to GPs, walk-in centers and local support for falls and frailty.

Health Minister Karin Smyth MP described the report as “heartbreaking”. “No one should receive care in a corridor – it is unacceptable, undignified and we are determined to put an end to it,” she said.

The Government is investing £450m in new urgent care centres, buying 500 ambulances and building 40 mental health crisis centres, she added.