Almost 150,000 people aged 90 and over in England are forced to wait more than 12 hours in emergency departments every year, with some experiencing “truly shocking” waits of several days. stuck in the corridorswarns the report.
According to Age UK, older people are also left for hours in their own excrement and wet beds, denied pain relief and forced to watch and hear other patients die around them because they have to wait so long for help.
In total, in 2024–25, more than 1 million patients aged 60 years and over had to wait more than 12 hours to be transferred, admitted or discharged to type 1 emergency departments. One in three (33%) aged 90 and over – 149,293 – had to wait more than 12 hours.
Caroline Abrahams, director of the charity Age UK, said: “What happens to some very ill older people when they come to emergency departments is a crisis hiding in plain sight that the government must confront and take immediate action to address.
“No one should have to spend their last days in a hospital corridor where staff cannot provide good, compassionate care, and it is truly shocking that this is what is happening to some very old people in some hospitals today and every day.”
The report details how one elderly woman died of a heart attack after being forced to wait; An 86-year-old man was 'lost' by a hospital after being placed in an abandoned corridor; and a man left on a drip in a chair for 20 hours soiled himself because he couldn't get to the toilet.
The 79-year-old man mentioned in the report compared corridor maintenance in 2025 to historical war films with “queues of stretchers and suffering people.”
The report also reported “puddles of urine” on the floor as immobile patients were unable to go to the toilet and patients were forced to use bedpans in public corridors.
Age UK said that due to previous negative and upsetting experiences, many older patients are now reluctant or even reluctant to go to the emergency department, even when faced with a life-threatening situation.
One widow told the charity: “My very sick late husband was put in a chair with a drip… he was desperate to go to the toilet and there was no one to take him. He was left with excrement in his trousers and remained like that for over 20 hours. How terrible he felt – no modesty.”
Abrahams said: “Many of the stories we have heard from older people and their families are heartbreaking and, to make matters worse, the older you are, the more likely you are to endure a long and often uncomfortable wait.
“Walking in the corridor and waiting for an ambulance for a long time is like rot that eats away at the heart National Health Serviceundermining public trust and destroying the ability of dedicated hospital staff to take pride in a job well done. As a result, we fear that poor quality care is now almost expected in and around some emergency departments – a truly appalling situation that we must take urgent action to correct.”
Ministers must come up with a plan to end long wait for ambulance and maintenance of hallways with specific timelines and milestones, she said.
“Hospitals themselves can do a lot to improve the situation in their emergency departments, but what is needed most now is for the government to step up, show decisive leadership and use all the levers at its disposal, including targets, audits and funding, to end this crisis that is disproportionately harming our older people.”
Lib Dem MP Helen Morgan, the party's health spokesman, also called on ministers to come up with a plan to “end corridor care”.
She said: “These heartbreaking stories – of elderly men and women crammed into hospital corridors, left in their own excrement, unable to drink or eat – have no place in a modern and decent society.”
Professor Nicola Ranger, from the Royal College of Nursing, called the report “devastating” and said long waits in emergency departments had become a “moral stain” on the NHS. “No elderly or vulnerable person should be forced to endure these conditions,” she added. “This is unsafe, undignified and unacceptable.
“Overworked and understaffed nursing teams work hard every day to provide the best possible care, but they are faced with an impossible task… The reality is that nursing staff and patients are being set up to fail because of a system that simply isn’t working.”
Daniel Elkeles from NHS Provider said the Age UK report was “shocking” and highlighted why urgent investment in buildings and equipment to increase capacity was needed.
Rory Deighton of the NHS Confederation called for “viable alternatives” to emergency care for some patients, including better access to GPs, drop-in centers and local support for falls and frailty.
Health Minister Karin Smith MP said the report was “heartbreaking”. “No one should receive help in the hallway – it is unacceptable, it is undignified and we are determined to put an end to it,” she said.
The government is investing £450 million in new urgent and urgent care centres, buying 500 ambulances and building 40 mental health crisis centres, she added.
