New Corridor Care Analysis Reveals “Exponential Increase” in People Aged 65+ Waiting Between One and Three Days in A&E
Shocking new analysis by Age UK in 2024/25 shows there were more than 100,000 instances of over-65s waiting between one day (24hrs) three days (72hrs) in A&E after a decision to admit them had been made
In more than half (54,000) of these cases these older people were aged 80 plus.
Data reveals “exponential increase” in the last 6 years – in 2018/19, people aged 65 plus experienced a wait of between one and three days in A&E only 1,346 times.
Sadly, Age UK has already established that if you are an older person who comes into A&E today, there is a considerable risk that you may face a wait of 12 hours or longer before a decision to admit you results in you actually moving to a hospital bed on a ward. The data also show that older people are the population group most likely to experience long waits and so-called Corridor Care (‘The Longest Wait – Our A&E Crisis Demands an Emergency Response’)
Now, new analysis of NHS England data obtained by Age UK through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has found that for horrifying numbers of older people the situation is even worse than we thought: in 2024/25, the most recent year for which figures are available, there were 101,972 instances of people aged 65 plus enduring waits of between one and three days in A&E after a decision to admit them had been made.
The Charity is hugely concerned that in more than half of these cases, the older people affected were aged 80 plus (53% or 53,870).
A review of the trends over time demonstrates that this phenomenon of older people having to wait for between one and three days for a hospital bed on a ward has exploded beyond all recognition in the last few years, growing from virtually nothing to a major problem now. We have witnessed an exponential increase over six years that shames our society and the NHS and that in Age UK’s view demands a more urgent Government response than appears currently to be being offered.
Age UK’s FOI request related to attendances at type 1 Emergency Departments in England. The data provided by NHS England grouped all waits between 1 and 3 days into a single category. NHS England has said that any waits recorded above three days are likely to be the result of data quality issues and are only included as part of the number of total attendances. However, Age UK and other organisations working in this policy area have heard accounts of people waiting even longer than three days – in a few cases up to a week.
In considering the disastrous impact on very sick older people of having to endure a lengthy period waiting for a hospital bed, often in discomfort on a corridor or in another inappropriate space, it is also important to recognise that some will also have experienced other delays waiting for an ambulance, and in going through the triage process once they have arrived in A&E.
That’s why Age UK is calling on the Government to lead a comprehensive, urgent process of change. Ministers have said they wish to see an end to Corridor Care by the end of this Parliament but there’s a pressing need for them to publish a plan setting out how this is to happen, to give hope to hospital staff who are in despair about having to work in these awful conditions, and reassurance to older people, growing numbers of whom are fearful of what a trip to hospital may bring.
Caroline Abrahams, Age UK Charity Director, said:
“It is staggering that more than 100,000 over-65s had to wait between one and three days for a hospital bed over the course of a year, more than half of them aged over 80. Waiting for more than 24 hours, often on a hard chair in a corridor or other overspill area, when you are extremely unwell, in pain, probably alone, maybe fearing for your life, would be horrific at any age, let alone if you are in your eighties or beyond. And yet this is happening day in, day out in the worst affected hospitals, to the extent that it’s become routine.
“We should all be ashamed that this is what we’ve come to in some hospitals, it’s utterly soul destroying for doctors and nurses, and extremely frightening for older people who know they may need to go to A&E one day. Of course, no one is happy with conditions like these, including Ministers, but at Age UK we are yet to be convinced that the Government really appreciates the seriousness of this situation and has the grip to turn it around.
“Because the good news is that it can be turned around, as some hospitals have shown.
There is much that they can do themselves to reduce their long waits and Corridor Care, learning from the example of the best, but they can’t do it all on their own and there’s a pressing need for Government to show leadership and publish a comprehensive, costed plan. It certainly isn’t possible to eradicate Corridor Care and long waits with the stroke of a pen, it will take time and commitment, but the sooner the Government makes a start the quicker we’ll restore a sense of decency in and around our A&Es, which is the least that our older population and hard-pressed hospital staff deserve.”
