ELDERLY people face the longest A&E wait times before being admitted into hospital, analysis by Nuffield Trust found.

The think tank found 43 per cent of over-80s spend more than 12 hours waiting in A&E before being admitted — more than twice the 19 per cent of those aged 21-30.

Nuffield Trust deputy director of research Sarah Scobie said: “It’s absolutely shocking that two fifths of the most elderly patients going into A&E are stuck waiting for over 12 hours, often in unsafe conditions, when they are already extremely unwell and vulnerable.

“Since the pandemic, stories like this have become so common, and we know that long A&E waits have caused thousands of avoidable deaths in recent years.”

A lack of hospital ward beds and delayed discharges due to inadequate social care outside of hospitals are behind the figures, the think tank said.

In May, nearly 3,000 patients every day were cared for in hospital corridors or makeshift treatment areas in England.

And in February, more than 72,000 of all patients waited over 12 hours, representing a third of all admissions.

Royal College of Emergency Medicine president Dr Ian Higginson said: “A key component of social care is care for those who are elderly or frail. 

“Increased attention towards the ‘back door’ of the hospital, including social care and other services which support discharge, would be a welcome step towards bringing bed capacity down and easing overcrowding and we hope this is included in [PM Andy Burnham’s] thinking.”

The Department of Health and Social Care said that a £450 million investment through its urgent and emergency care plan will expand bed capacity and enable more care to be delivered outside hospital settings.