23,000 people died in 2022 because of A&E wait times

We are really upset to hear the latest data from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, showing that there were 23,003 excess deaths in 2022 due A&E wait times. “These distressing figures suggest that patients are now dying in their droves as our health services struggle to cope after years of neglect," says Daisy Cooper MP, who is following this closely as the Liberal Democrats' health spokesperson. "To put it in perspective, the estimated 23,000 excess deaths is 3,000 more than the number of people who lost their lives in Japan's catastrophic tsunami in 2011. Long waiting times are leading to unnecessary deaths, and this is nothing short of a national disaster."

What's the solution? According to Daisy: "We need a proper plan now to increase  the number of hospital beds, reduce A&E delays and bring the NHS back from the brink. That must start with recruiting more GPs, empowering our pharmacists and helping patients leaving hospital to access social care."