Figures reveal a record 350,000 patients waited over 12 hours in A&E last year

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.

Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey will today set out an NHS rescue plan to reduce the ‘appalling delays’, which he also says are ‘needlessly costing lives’.

This includes recruiting 8,000 more GPs, giving pharmacists more powers to prescribe medicines and boosting funding to get eligible patients out of hospital and into social care.

The proposals would mean fewer desperate people turning to A&E after struggling to get a GP appointment, he claims.

Mr Davey said: ‘The appalling delays at A&E are needlessly costing lives as patients are left waiting hours on end for the treatment they need.

‘The failure of the Conservative government to grip this crisis is simply unforgivable.

‘Instead they have shamefully allowed the situation to go from bad to worse through years of neglect and failure.

‘Rishi Sunak is in total denial about the scale of the problem facing our hospitals, social care and GP services.

‘We need a proper plan now to free up 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 people to leave hospital and into social care.’