Almost 150,000 people aged 90 and over in England are forced to wait longer than 12 hours in A&E every year, with some experiencing “truly shocking” waits of several days stuck in corridors, a report warns.
Older people are also being left in their own excrement and wet beds for hours, denied pain relief and forced to watch and hear other patients die next to them because they end up waiting so long for care, according to Age UK.
In total, more than 1 million patients aged 60 and over had to wait more than 12 hours to be transferred, admitted or discharged in type 1 emergency departments in 2024-25. One in three (33%) aged 90 or older – 149,293 – were forced to wait more than 12 hours.
Caroline Abrahams, the charity director of Age UK, said: “What’s happening to some very ill older people when they come to A&E is a crisis hiding in plain sight which the government must face up to and take immediate action to resolve.
“No one should have to spend their final days in a hospital corridor where it’s impossible for the staff to provide good, compassionate care, and it’s truly shocking that this is what is happening to some very old people in some hospitals, today and every day.”
The report detailed how one older woman died from a heart attack after being left to wait; an 86-year-old man was “lost” by the hospital after being put in a disused corridor; and a man left on an IV drip in a chair for 20 hours soiled himself because he was unable to get to the toilet.
A 79-year-old cited in the report likened corridor care in 2025 to historic war films with “queues of stretchers and people suffering”.
The report also carried accounts of “puddles of urine” on floors as immobile patients were unable to go to the toilet and patients forced to use bedpans in public corridors.
Age UK said that because of previous negative and upsetting experiences, many older patients were now reluctant or even unwilling to go to A&E, even if facing a life-threatening situation.
One widow told the charity: “My very ill late husband, with a drip attached, was put in a chair … he was desperate to go to the loo and there was no one to take him. He was left with excrement in his pants and was left in this state for over 20 hours. How dreadful he felt – no modesty.”
Abrahams said: “Many of the stories we have heard from older people and their families are heartbreaking and, to make it worse, the older you are, the more likely you are, it seems, to endure a lengthy and often uncomfortable wait.
“Corridor care and long A&E waits are like a rot eating away the heart of the NHS, undermining public trust and destroying the ability of committed hospital staff to be able to take pride in a job well done. As a result, we fear that poor quality care in and around some A&E departments is now almost expected – a truly dire situation we must act urgently to turn around.”
Ministers should produce a plan to end long A&E waits and corridor care, with specific deadlines and milestones, she said.
“There’s a lot that hospitals themselves can do to improve the situation in their A&Es, but what’s most needed now is for government to step up, show determined leadership and use all the levers at its disposal – including targets, inspection and funding – to bring this crisis, which is disproportionately hurting our oldest, to an end.”
The Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, the party’s health spokesperson, also urged ministers to deliver a plan to “end corridor care”.
She said: “These harrowing stories – of elderly men and women crammed into hospital corridors, left in their own excrement, unable to drink and eat – has no place in a modern or decent society.”
Prof Nicola Ranger, of the Royal College of Nursing, called the report “devastating” and said long A&E waits were “a moral stain” on the NHS. “No elderly or vulnerable person should be forced to endure these conditions,” she added. “It is unsafe, undignified, and unacceptable.
“Overstretched and understaffed nursing teams work hard every day to deliver the best care, but they face an impossible task … The reality is nursing staff and patients are being set up to fail by a system that simply isn’t working.”
Daniel Elkeles, of NHS Providers, said the Age UK report was “shocking” and underlined why urgent investment in buildings and equipment was needed to boost capacity.
Rory Deighton, of NHS Confederation, called for “viable alternatives” to A&E for some patients, including better access to GPs, walk-in centres and local support for falls and frailty.
The health minister Karin Smyth MP called the report “heartbreaking”. “No one should receive care in a corridor – it’s unacceptable, undignified and we are determined to end it,” she said.
The government was investing £450m in new urgent and emergency care centres, buying 500 ambulances and building 40 mental health crisis centres, she added.
