ENGLAND’S A&Es stood on the brink of collapse yesterday with record-breaking emergency admissions and a 255 per cent rise in patients waiting over four hours for a bed.

Official figures showed that 111,062 emergency cases turned up at A&Es last week, leaving buckling departments struggling to cope and forcing 10,000 people into lengthy waits for care — up 6,000 on the same week in 2013.

British Medical Association (BMA) chairman Dr Mark Porter warned that the NHS was now running on a “crisis basis” simply to meet normal demand and could be unable to deal with a major incident.