Record 350,000 wait over 12 hours in A&E

A RECORD 350,000 patients waited over 12 hours in A&E last year – up from just 1,300 in 2015, figures reveal.

The surge in delays – equal to a 26,524 per cent rise – comes amid a crisis in emergency care, with ambulances forced to queue outside hospitals to drop people off.

The NHS Digital figures, analysed by the Liberal Democrats, show there were 5,589,687 emergency admissions to hospital in 2015, with 1,306 patients, or 0.02 per cent, waiting more than 12 hours.

However, this soared to 347,707 last year, with 5.85 per cent of the 5,948,109 admissions waiting this long – almost 1,000 a day.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has warned up to 500 people a week are dying as a result of ambulance and treatment delays.