Winter crisis: A&E waits of over 12-hours at this Yorkshire NHS trust have almost trebled in the last year

House of Commons Library research, commissioned by the party, has found there have been 1.09 million waits of 12 hours or more across emergency departments in England between February and September this year. 

That is a 20 per cent increase over the same period in 2023, with the Lib Dems warning that the NHS is on course for even higher levels of A&E delays this winter.

In Yorkshire, certain trusts have seen a huge increase in A&E waits of 12 hours or more.

Over that time period, the Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust has seen 12-hour waits almost triple - going from 515 in 2023 to 1,475 in 2024.

While at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust in West Yorkshire, the number of 12-hour A&E waits increased by 145 per cent.

Not all trusts in the region saw big spikes, with both Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust reducing the number of long emergency waits.

Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, told the Yorkshire Post: “As we head into another winter crisis with an overstretched NHS, fixing these horrifyingly long A&E delays is vital. 

“A terrible legacy of struggling A&E departments was left by the Conservative Party, with patients forced into A&E because they can’t access community care, and patients well enough to leave hospital but unable to because our social care sector is also totally broken. 

“We must see immediate action from the Government to break the cycle of annual winter crises.

“A first, vital, step is making the NHS and social care the absolute top priorities in the Budget. 

“We need action now to make sure the NHS can survive the winter, and reform to properly support social care, so that health and care services don’t continue to face crisis after crisis.”

Mr Gordon’s party is calling for Rachel Reeves to announce a £1.5 billion ring-fenced fund in next week’s Budget, “to build resilience in hospital wards, A&E departments, ambulance services and patient discharging”. 

The Lib Dems are also calling for a wider funding boost for the NHS, to increase the number of GPs, boost the number of NHS dentist appointments and fix crumbling hospitals.

Days earlier, the government announced a consultation on the future of the NHS, promising to put patients and staff at the heart of its forthcoming 10-year health plan.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said that the NHS is going through the “worst crisis in its history” while Sir Keir Starmer said that transformation of the health service would be a “moment in our history”.

Both Harrogate and District and Airedale NHS trusts were contacted for comment, as well as the Department for Health and Social Care.