People are waiting in packed A&Es for up to a week waiting to be treated, a charity has claimed.

Damning new analysis by Age UK shows elderly people waiting in A&E between one and three days has increased 75-fold. The charity has received many harrowing A&E experiences and says the country’s most elderly are bearing the brunt of the national A&E crisis and being abandoned in hospital waiting rooms.

Data released under Freedom of Information laws shows there were 102,000 instances of over-65s waiting between 24 hours and 72 hours in A&E after a decision to admit them had been made in 2024/25. In more than half of these cases, 54,000, these older people were aged 80 plus. By comparison in 2018/19 people aged over 65 waited between one and three days in A&E only 1,346 times.

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NHS England has said that any waits recorded above three days are likely to be the result of data quality issues but Age UK says it and and other organisations working in this area have heard accounts of people waiting even longer than 3 days – in a few cases up to a week.

Caroline Abrahams, Age UK director, said: “It is staggering that more than 100,000 over-65s had to wait between one and three days for a hospital bed over the course of a year, more than half of them aged over 80. Waiting for more than 24 hours, often on a hard chair in a corridor or other overspill area, when you are extremely unwell, in pain, probably alone, maybe fearing for your life, would be horrific at any age, let alone if you are in your eighties or beyond. And yet this is happening day in, day out in the worst affected hospitals, to the extent that it’s become routine.

The charity’s report saw elderly patients describe being left vomiting while sitting on plastic chairs or lying on the floor, alone, too unwell to move, some developing pressure sores, or self-discharging against medical advice because they felt safer taking their chances outside hospital than staying.

They told of being exhausted, frightened and distressed and robbed of their dignity when they were at their most vulnerable, and in some cases not even being offered a glass of water.

The report heard from a 77-year-old man called David who spent around 30 hours in A&E. He said: “Every joint was aching. It was excruciating, and I could barely move. They told me there were no beds, no trolleys, nothing. I was left in the reception area all night with no treatment and no one checking on me. I ended up lying on the floor. Someone gave me a coat to put under my head. I’d been awake for three nights by then. It was horrendous.”

Michael, 80, who was left on a trolley for 16 hours after suffering a heart attack, said: “I was freezing cold with no blankets or pillow. I was terrified about my heart and depressed from the cold. I didn’t dare discharge myself, but it was a dreadful experience.”

Jennifer, 76, who waited 36 hours, said: “I had no washing facilities at all. I was told to wash in a toilet sink with no plug. I felt like something that had been left on the streets.”

NHS data shows patients who spent more than 12 hours in A&E are more than twice as likely to die within 30 days than those who are seen within two hours.

Age UK, which obtained the data, says our most elderly are more likely to have to endure the longest waits. Older people usually present at A&E with multiple, often complex health needs which take longer to assess and determine the right course of treatment.

Ms Abrahams added: “We should all be ashamed that this is what we’ve come to in some hospitals, it’s utterly soul destroying for doctors and nurses, and extremely frightening for older people who know they may need to go to A&E one day.

"Of course, no one is happy with conditions like these, including Ministers, but at Age UK we are yet to be convinced that the Government really appreciates the seriousness of this situation and has the grip to turn it around.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “These stories are shocking and appalling, and our thoughts go out to all those who have faced difficult experiences in A&E.

“This government inherited a broken NHS with unacceptable waiting times and corridor care normalised, but we are working hard to things around – and thanks to the steps we’ve taken, this winter ambulances are arriving faster, and A&E waits are shorter.

“We have invested almost £450 million in urgent and emergency care, delivered hundreds of thousands more vaccinations to protect the vulnerable and are building new same day emergency centres and mental health crisis centres.

“We have also delivered over 5 million additional appointments, cut waiting lists by 312,000, and launched our 10 Year Health Plan which will deliver more care in the community to ease pressure on hospitals. We will soon be publishing data on corridor care, as sunlight is the best disinfectant.”