50,582 patients waited over 12 hours for a bed after a decision to admit in September 2026, against 689 a month before the pandemic
Share of all A&E attendances admitted, transferred or discharged within 4 hours of arrival (per cent), and patients waiting over 12 hours from the decision to admit to admission (patients a month), England, monthly, 2010 to 2026.
Before the pandemic is the average month in 2019. The figures are for England
Latest figures
| Series | Period | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Share of attendances within 4 hours | September 2026 | 74.4% |
| Waits of over 12 hours from decision to admit | September 2026 | 50,582 |
Notes
- The 4-hour measure is the share of attendances where the patient was admitted, transferred or discharged within 4 hours of arriving. It counts every kind of A&E: major emergency departments (type 1), single-specialty departments such as eye hospitals (type 2), and urgent treatment centres, minor injury units and walk-in centres (type 3).
- The 12-hour figure counts patients who waited more than 12 hours from a decision to admit them to being admitted to a hospital bed. It leaves out the time before the decision, so it is not the number who spent 12 hours in A&E from arrival.
- From November 2010 to May 2015 NHS England estimated the monthly figures from weekly ones, sharing each week between calendar months, so the lines break there.
- From May 2019 to May 2023, 4-hour figures leave out the 14 hospital trusts that were testing new A&E standards (the Clinical Review of Standards), and NHS England says they can't be directly compared with other months. The line breaks where the trusts left and came back. The 12-hour figures include them throughout.
- From August 2020 attendances include booked appointments, so the 4-hour line breaks there too.
- From August 2022 to February 2023 a cyber-attack on several type 3 providers meant some of their attendances were not reported.
- This is England only. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland measure A&E waits separately.