More than 50,000 over-80s faced waits of up to three days for a hospital bed last year, damning new analysis shows.
Some were left languishing on the floor and told to wash in toilet sinks while waiting to get onto a ward, according to the report by Age UK.
And more than 100,000 people over the age of 65 sat for between one and three days in A&E corridors and waiting rooms.
The charity said extremely unwell patients are being left for hours ‘day in, day out’ at some NHS hospitals, with the situation becoming ‘routine’.
It questioned Labour‘s grasp of the situation and ability to significantly improve the situation.
The figures were obtained using a Freedom of Information request in relation to unplanned attendances at major, consultant-led A&E departments between April 2018 and March 2025.
In 2024/25, some 101,972 people aged 65 or over waited for a bed for between one and three days after a decision to admit them to hospital had been made, of which 53,870 were aged 80 or over.
Caroline Abrahams, Age UK charity director, described the figures as ‘staggering’, adding: ‘Waiting for more than 24 hours, often on a hard chair in a corridor or other overspill area, when you are extremely unwell, in pain, probably alone, maybe fearing for your life, would be horrific at any age, let alone if you are in your eighties or beyond.
‘And yet this is happening day in, day out in the worst affected hospitals, to the extent that it’s become routine.’
A report published last week by the Royal College of Nursing warned that collapsing care standards in the NHS are pushing staff morale almost ‘past the point of no return’
Footage shared with ITV news last December from Queen’s Hospital in east London shows patients waiting in corridors for treatment
One 77-year-old patient, named only as David, told Age UK he spent 30 hours waiting in A&E and ‘could barely move’. He was told there were no beds or trolleys, and ended up lying on the floor.
‘Someone gave me a coat to put under my head. I’d been awake for three nights by then. It was horrendous.’
Another, Michael, 80, was left on a trolley for 16 hours after having a heart attack with no blankets or pillow while Jennifer, 76, waited 36 hours with no washing facilities. She was told to wash herself in a toilet sink with no plug.
‘I felt like something that had been left on the streets,’ she said.
The Age UK analysis comes after a probe by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body earlier this month found some NHS hospitals are adapting corridors and other spaces to provide care by installing plug sockets and emergency call bells in a bid to minimise patient safety risks.
Senior staff told the watchdog the changes were made as medics ‘could not avoid using these spaces’.
A report published last week by the Royal College of Nursing also warned that collapsing care standards in the NHS are pushing staff morale almost ‘past the point of no return‘.
Now Age UK is calling for the Government to create a funded plan with specific deadlines to slash long A&E waits and end corridor care, as well as establishing a system to collect regular data on corridor care.
It also said a minister should be appointed to be accountable for tackling these issues, with a requirement to report to Parliament every six months.
The latest monthly performance figures published by NHS England show the number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments from a decision to admit to actually being admitted stood at 50,775 in December, up slightly from 50,648 in November.
The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission also rose to 137,763, up from 133,799.
Some 73.8 per cent of patients were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, down from 74.2 per cent in November.
The Government and NHS England have set a target of March 2026 for 78 per cent of patients attending A&E to be admitted, discharged or transferred within four hours.
Ms Abrahams added: ‘We should all be ashamed that this is what we’ve come to in some hospitals, it’s utterly soul destroying for doctors and nurses, and extremely frightening for older people who know they may need to go to A&E one day.
‘Of course, no one is happy with conditions like these, including ministers, but at Age UK we are yet to be convinced that the Government really appreciates the seriousness of this situation and has the grip to turn it around… but the sooner the Government makes a start the quicker we’ll restore a sense of decency in and around our A&Es, which is the least that our older population and hard-pressed hospital staff deserve.’
Rory Deighton, acute and community care director at the NHS Confederation which represents NHS trusts, said it ‘paints a deeply shocking picture of people’s experiences waiting for care in busy A&E departments’.
He added: ‘As well as being undignified, unsafe and frustrating for patients and their families, corridor care can leave NHS staff with the moral injury of being unable to provide the quality of care they would like to.
‘This analysis rightly points out that older people can often face longer waits and corridor care because they usually have multiple and more complex health needs which take longer to assess and treatment.
‘Health leaders continue to work on tackling the root causes of corridor care, trying to ensure flow through the system by improving patient discharge, working with local authorities to improve social care support, and prioritising vulnerable older patients at the front door through increased frailty screening. But until the challenges in social care are tackled, it is likely that the practice will unfortunately continue.’