Nearly 1,000 deaths are linked to long A&E waits in Wales in 2025, a report from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has warned.

RCEM said that “the scale of deaths linked to long A&E waits last year should send shockwaves through the entire political system in Wales” and said that “whoever forms the next Welsh Government must commit to ending the link between long waits and deaths by 2030.”

RCEM’s State of Emergency Medicine in Wales report revealed that an estimated 965 deaths in Wales in 2025 were associated with waits of 12 or more hours at Emergency Departments before admission into a hospital bed.

That’s an average of 18 people per week dying due to long waits in A&E.

The new analysis shows an increase of 29 deaths compared to 2024 and outlines how the long waits, high bed occupancy and deaths associated with them can be curbed.

RCEM is calling on all political parties to commit to bringing the excess death figure associated with long waits in A&E to zero by the end of the decade.

The report says that “overcrowding and long waits remained significant issues for Welsh emergency departments in 2025” and added “there is little sign of improvement.”

Figures show that 122,166 people waited 12 hours or longer in A&Es in Wales in 2025.

“We know that there is a direct correlation between long waits, overcrowding and patient harm in the A&E”, the report says.

“In 2025, RCEM conservatively estimates that there were on average 18 deaths every week associated with waits of 12 hours or longer in Welsh A&Es.”

In 2025, 800,432 people attended major A&Es across Wales – an average of 66,703 per month.

That is a slight one per cent increase from the last year, with the figure remaining relatively consistent since 2011 other than during the coronavirus pandemic.

NHS Wales’ target is that no patient should wait more than 12 hours in an A&E, however, 122,166 people waited 12 hours or longer in 2025 – the second highest annual figure ever.

The figures indicate that one in seven people who attended A&Es in Wales waited 12 hours or more.

In 2015, just one in 32 people waited 12 hours or longer.

The RCEM report said that “patients who are admitted from the A&E to the hospital – often the sickest patients – are far more likely to wait for a long time.”

Of the 122,166 patients who waited 12 hours or more, more than half were admitted patients.

NHS Wales four-hour target is that 95 per cent of patients should wait for four-hours or less.

In 2025, this figure was 54 per cent, the worst ever performance.

The delays in Wales’ A&Es has also led to an “unacceptable” amount of patients being treated in corridors in order to clear waiting times backlogs.

The RCEM report says: “Across Wales, increasing numbers of patients are treated in corridors, waiting rooms and other inappropriate spaces, not because of clinical need but because there is nowhere else for them to go.

“A&E staff are inflicted with moral injury every day because there is limited space to treat patients effectively – they are forced to treat patients in crowded and public spaces, sometimes for days.

“In February 2026, all 12 Emergency Departments provided RCEM with snapshot data from a recent Monday morning in their A&E.

“304 patients were stuck in A&E waiting for an inpatient bed – 97 of whom were being treated in non-designated spaces.

“Two patients had been stuck in A&Es for five days.

“We asked respondents to specify overcrowding is affecting their ability to run the A&E and its impact on staff and patients.

“All responded with negative feedback on current conditions.”

The RCEM said that “these conditions are not just inconvenient and uncomfortable for patients; they are dehumanising and dangerous.”

“Overcrowding and long waits are not unsolvable, or the inevitable consequence of increases in demand and an ageing population,” the report added.

The report adds that delayed discharges are also a cause of long waits, A&E overcrowding and high bed occupancy.

“This occurs when patients are medically fit to leave the hospital but cannot, often due to patients awaiting assessment or social care arrangement,” the report added.

“The average daily number of patients ready for discharge but remaining in hospital was 1,412 in 2025.

“This is an encouraging decrease from 2024 when the number was 1,587; however, we are yet to see real improved waiting times and A&E conditions.”

Dr Rob Perry, RCEM Vice President for Wales, said of the findings: “Any number of avoidable deaths in Emergency Departments is a tragedy - that there were almost a thousand last year should send shockwaves through the entire political system.

“My heart goes out to the loved ones of any person who died following long waits in A&Es.

“These may have been our most vulnerable patients – those who have been deemed sick or injured enough to require admission.

“They should be receiving the best care promptly.

“Instead, they are often the ones who end up waiting the longest.

“More than 900 of them may have paid the ultimate price last year for the breakdown in patient flow, and a lack of beds in hospitals.

“Our departments are full.

“This is in large part because of difficulties in discharging patients at the ‘back door’ of the hospital. Addressing this, instead of focusing on diverting people away from A&Es, the ‘front door’ - is the best way to fix long waits.

“To all parties contesting the upcoming Senedd elections: we call on you to act without delay to end overcrowding in A&Es.

“As our report shows, this is a matter of life and death.

"The solutions are clear.

“Action on patient flow and hospital capacity could save the lives of upwards of 1,000 people each year – but this issue must be made a political priority.

“Failing to act will mean more deaths, and more heartbreak for families of individuals let down by a crumbling Urgent and Emergency Care system.”

The RCEM is calling on the Welsh Government “to make a national commitment to end overcrowding in Emergency Departments.”

The RCEM has called on the Welsh Government to “commit to the principle that any patient who requires a cubicle space is never treated in a non-designated treatment area”; “ensure no new NHS policies increase pressure on A&Es without demonstrable improvements first having been made in hospital flow metrics”; “prioritise the adoption of a whole-system approach with responsibility for performance spread across the entire patient pathway”; “ensure that there is accountability for ending overcrowding across the system and that trusts/health boards, NHS Wales and national government play their role in ending overcrowding”; and “eradicate mortality associated with long waits in emergency departments by the end of the decade and ensure that these deaths are treated with equivalence to deaths in other medical specialities.”

The excess death figure was calculated using the Standard Mortality Ratio, which suggests that for every 72 patients who experience A&E waits of 12 or more hours, there will be one death.