50, 000 That's the record number of patients forced to wait 12 hours in A&E each week

• Massive jump rom 30,000 in just two months • 25,000 ambulance workers set to strike today

The number of patients waiting more than 12 hours in A&E for treatment has exceeded 50,000 a week for the first time, The Independent can reveal. Leaked NHS data shows that as many as one in eight patients last month faced a “trolley wait” – the time between attending A&E and being admitted – longer than 12 hours as the health service comes under growing strain. The Independent previously revealed that as many as 500 deaths a week had been linked to long delays for emergency treatment in October, when 30,000 patients a week were waiting 12 hours or more. Today, the crisis will be exacerbated further as 25,000 ambulance staff – including 999 call handlers – are set to strike. Healthcare leaders said they fear this round of strikes will hit services even harder than those before Christmas. Sources across the country warned that hospitals are having to “squeeze” some patients into spaces outside of normal wards, with no direct oxygen lines, while others wait for hours in ambulances outside emergency departments. Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “It is unsafe and unacceptable to leave patients waiting so long for emergency care. These record-long waiting times are having terrible consequences for patients.”