A&E overcrowding linked to more than 500 avoidable deaths a week, study suggests
A new study of 134 emergency departments presented today links A&E overcrowding to hundreds of excess deaths each week across the UK.
Hospital overcrowding is linked to hundreds of avoidable deaths each week in the UK, a major new study presented today has found.
The research, presented at the European Emergency Medicine Congress in France, reviewed more than 19,000 adult patients treated across 134 A&E departments in England, Wales and Northern Ireland over two weeks in March 2025 — covering around 70% of emergency departments in those nations. For every 10% increase in occupancy, the chance of dying within 28 days rose by 1%. Average occupancy was 175% of cubicle capacity.
The study was carried out by members of the Trainee Emergency Research Network (TERN) as part of the UNCORKED study series.
Lead author Dr Ryan McHenry, of the University of Glasgow and an emergency medicine doctor in the west of Scotland, estimated that overcrowding contributed to 554 excess, otherwise-avoidable deaths per week in the UK last year — compared with a situation where departments had one space for every patient. He gave a wide plausible range of 33 to 1,083 excess deaths, and described the study as “relatively small”.
Around 3,000 patients a day receive “corridor care” in hallways and overflow areas; the study says its link to death risk is hard to measure.
Dr Ian Higginson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “People are dying in association with overcrowding in Emergency Departments. This should be cause for alarm among policymakers, and yet we are not seeing any urgency.” The college called on the governments of the four UK nations to act urgently.
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