More than 16,600 patients suffered needless deaths in England last year due to very long waits in A&E, a damning study suggests.
Analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said the alarming toll - equal to 320 deaths a week - is a fifth higher than in 2023.
The victims came to harm after being left to languish on a trolley while doctors waited for a bed to become available on a ward.
Dr Adrian Boyle, the College’s president, said: ‘I am at a loss as how to adequately describe the scale of this figure.
‘To give it some context, it is the equivalent of two aeroplanes crashing every week.
