PATIENTS are more likely to die if they endure long waits in A&E before being admitted to a hospital bed, research by the Emergency Medicine Journal revealed today.

The study, which examined data from more than five million patients in England between April 2016 and March 2018, found that waiting longer than five hours in A&E increased the risk of dying from any cause within 30 days, with the risks going up the longer people waited.

For every 82 admitted patients who waited more than six to eight hours for a bed, there is one extra death, the researchers said.