New analysis shows more than 800 Scots died after long A&E waits last year

More than 800 Scots died last year after long A&E waits, according to new analysis from The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM).

The body published figures on Tuesday showing there were 818 deaths in 2024 linked to delays before admission.

That’s a rise of a third, or 202 more, compared to the previous year.

The findings will be presented by RCEM Scotland vice president Dr Fiona Hunter at the College’s Future of Emergency Care event in Edinburgh, where it will also launch its manifesto ahead of the 2026 elections.

The manifesto urges political parties to end emergency department overcrowding, provide enough staff for safe and sustainable care, and ensure NHS Scotland is properly resourced.

The warnings come after a summer of relentless pressure on A&E departments across the country. Between June and July, one in 24 patients (9,881) waited 12 hours or more in A&E – 7,003 more than the entire year of 2018.

In July alone, 4,686 people endured such waits, double the figure for January 2022.

The report shows 76,510 patients in total faced 12-hour waits in 2024, up 20,432 on the previous year. Of those, 58,906 were waiting for ward admission.

Using a standard mortality ratio which suggested one person would die for every 72 patients who waited between eight and 12 hours, the RCEM estimates 818 excess deaths were recorded in relation to stays of 12 hours or longer.

Dr Hunter said: “The fact that the deaths of more than 800 patients have been lost due to a system in crisis is a national tragedy.

“Behind this statistic are stories of heartbreak. Because these are people. Mums, dads, brothers, sisters, grandparents – their deaths shattering the lives of families and friends.

“These are patients who are sick and need further care on a ward. So they are forced to endure extreme wait times for an inpatient bed to become available for them. Often, they will be experiencing this, counting the hours they have been in ED, on a trolley in a corridor, cupboard, or simply any available floor space.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. The crisis is fixable and it comes down to patient flow in hospitals – getting people out of ED and into a ward bed and getting them out of hospital when they are well enough to go home.”

The RCEM will also unveil its 2025 Emergency Medicine Workforce Census on Tuesday, which will highlight a shortage of key decision-makers.

Responses were received from 28 major Emergency Departments, along with three rural and remote hospitals and found:

Scotland has one consultant per 4,692 attendances, below RCEM’s recommended ratio of 1:4,000.
Thirty-eight consultants and ten SAS doctors plan to retire in the next five years, while rota gaps persist.
Consultant presence averages 14 hours per weekday, short of the recommended 16.

Dr Hunter added: “While there have been some slight improvements compared to our first census in 2021, it is still abundantly clear that EDs are not adequately staffed, with senior decision makers, to deliver high quality patient care.

“Going into work, caring for patient, after patient, on a trolley in a corridor takes an immense toll. It’s no wonder they are burnout and stressed as they struggle to do the one thing they came into medicine to do, provide care.”

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “SNP ministers should hang their heads in shame at these heartbreaking figures, which lay bare the human toll of the SNP’s chronic mismanagement of emergency care.

“These completely avoidable deaths are the direct result of the Nationalists’ abject failure to meet their own A&E targets.

“Frontline staff are working flat out for their patients, but they’ve been failed by successive SNP health secretaries who still haven’t come up with a credible plan to address this national emergency.

“Neil Gray needs to show some common sense and adopt our plans to cut bureaucracy, axe middle managers and surge resources to the frontline – or else even more families will needlessly be mourning the loss of loved ones.”

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said the “damning analysis lays bare the true cost of SNP failure”.

“For years Scots have been dying as a result of dangerously long waits in A&E, but the SNP has stood idly by while this crisis ran riot,” she added.

“The SNP has no idea how to fix this crisis and our NHS cannot afford a third decade of this incompetence.”

Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said people were waiting “excruciatingly long” in A&E, adding: “Staff and patients are trapped in pressure cooker conditions.

“Since the target was last met, there has been a merry-go-round of four SNP health secretaries, but not a single one has ever made a dent.”

Health secretary Neil Gray said: “My sympathies go to anyone bereaved after loved ones endured long A&E waits. We’ve always recognised the relationship between long A&E waits and increased risk of harm, which is why we remain committed to delivering improved performance and shifting the focus of care from acute to community where better for patients.

“We are seeing progress with the latest monthly A&E figures showing July 2025 had the lowest number of 8 and 12 hour waits for any month since September 2023. Scotland’s core A&E departments have also consistently outperformed those in England and Wales for the last decade.

“Our additional investment of £200m is further reducing waiting times and will see us have specialist frailty teams in every core A&E. We’ve also seen the number of Emergency Medicine Consultants in NHS Scotland increasing by 21% in the last four years.”