More than 800 excess deaths because of long A&E waits, says medical body

More than 800 deaths in Scotland are believed to be related to long A&E waits, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has claimed.

The body found that there were 76,510 people who waited longer than 12 hours in emergency departments last year, up by 20,432 from the previous year.

Of those long waits, 58,906 were waiting to be admitted to a ward.

Using a standard mortality ratio which suggested one person would die for every 72 patients who waited between eight and 12 hours, the RCEM estimates 818 excess deaths were recorded in relation to stays of 12 hours or longer.

Dr Fiona Hunter, the vice president of RCEM Scotland, said the figures laid bare a “national tragedy”.

“Behind this statistic are stories of heartbreak,” she said.

“Because these are people. Mums, dads, brothers, sisters, grandparents – their deaths shattering the lives of families and friends.

“These are patients who are sick and need further care on a ward.

“So they are forced to endure extreme wait times for an inpatient bed to become available for them.

“Often, they will be experiencing this, counting the hours they have been in ED, on a trolley in a corridor, cupboard, or simply any available floor space.

“It doesn’t have to be this way – the crisis is fixable and it comes down to patient flow in hospitals – getting people out of ED and into a ward bed and getting them out of hospital when they are well enough to go home.”

The figures were released alongside the RCEM’s manifesto ahead of the Holyrood election next year.

In the document, the RCEM called for an end to A&E overcrowding by investing in social care and focusing as much on stemming 12-hour waits and the four-hour target, as well as ensuring adequate staffing levels.

“We urge all political parties to adopt the recommendations in our manifesto to give Scotland an emergency care system that we can be proud of once again. Because without government action, the cost will continue to be measured in lives,” Dr Hunter added.

Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said Government ministers should “hang their heads in shame”.

“These completely avoidable deaths are the direct result of the nationalists’ abject failure to meet their own A&E targets,” he said.

“Frontline staff are working flat out for their patients, but they’ve been failed by successive SNP health secretaries who still haven’t come up with a credible plan to address this national emergency.

“Neil Gray needs to show some common sense and adopt our plans to cut bureaucracy, axe middle managers and surge resources to the front line – or else even more families will needlessly be mourning the loss of loved ones.”

While Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said people were waiting “excruciatingly long” in A&E, adding: “Staff and patients are trapped in pressure cooker conditions.

“Since the target was last met, there has been a merry-go-round of four SNP health secretaries, but not a single one has ever made a dent.”

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said the “damning analysis lays bare the true cost of SNP failure”.

“For years Scots have been dying as a result of dangerously long waits in A&E, but the SNP has stood idly by while this crisis ran riot,” she added.

“The SNP has no idea how to fix this crisis and our NHS cannot afford a third decade of this incompetence.”

Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “My sympathies go to anyone bereaved after loved ones endured long A&E waits.

“We’ve always recognised the relationship between long A&E waits and increased risk of harm, which is why we remain committed to delivering improved performance and shifting the focus of care from acute to community where better for patients.

“We are seeing progress with the latest monthly A&E figures showing July 2025 had the lowest number of eight and 12-hour waits for any month since September 2023. Scotland’s core A&E departments have also consistently outperformed those in England and Wales for the last decade.

“Our additional investment of £200 million is further reducing waiting times and will see us have specialist frailty teams in every core A&E. We’ve also seen the number of emergency medicine consultants in NHS Scotland increasing by 21% in the last four years.”