EMERGENCY care doctors have called for political action over the “very real” risks to patients from long waits in A&E.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said that such delays are a “national scandal,” causing “entirely preventable” deaths.

Elderly people are in the greatest danger, the college said, following a snapshot survey this week of more than a quarter of emergency department heads across Britain.

Nine in 10 of the 63 department heads said they felt patients were “coming into harm” in their department due to the quality of care that can be delivered under current conditions.

One said a patient had spent more than 25 hours in A&E while waiting for a hospital bed to become available.

Some 87 per cent said they had patients being treated in corridors and 68 per cent told of patients waiting in ambulances outside their A&E.

In a letter to all major political parties, college president Dr Adrian Boyle described the situation as “nothing short of a national scandal,” saying the survey shows “the level of harm and risk our patients are being exposed to” and that “these responses reveal the true and shameful reality of the state of emergency care in the UK.

“Last year, the deaths of more than 250 people a week were associated with long waits in emergency departments — that’s equivalent of an aeroplane full of people every seven days.

“These deaths are entirely preventable if long waits before admission were addressed and eradicated.

“The risk to patients’ lives is very real, it is very serious and is happening right now.

“People are dying and all we have from those hoping to form the next government is a deafening silence on this issue, which really is a matter of life and death.”

Both Labour and the Conservatives have pledged in their manifestos to meet NHS targets, but Keep Our NHS Public co-chairman Dr John Puntis said the next government “must declare a national health and care emergency and commit to restoring the NHS to a publicly provided service based on its founding principles, as supported by the majority of the public.”

He said the emergency care crisis relates “directly to a lack of beds, staff vacancies and the dire state of social care,” adding: “This requires much bolder spending plans linked to a positive vision of services that are not simply a drain on resources but there to improve people’s lives and support a growing economy.”