More than a MILLION NHS sufferers have spent 12 hours or extra in A&E this yr prompting fears of a brand new winter disaster – learn how lengthy the wait is in YOUR native hospital

More than a million people have spent 12 hours or more in accident and emergency department this year, sparking fears of a new winter crisis in the NHS.

Some 1.09 million people were in emergency departments for a full half a day before being admitted, transferred or discharged from hospital between February and September, up a fifth on the same period last year.

The statistics, which cover England, show that one in every 10 patients endured long waits. But the situation in some individual NHS Trusts was much worse.

The data, compiled by the House of Commons Library for the Liberal Democrats, showed that a quarter of people attending A&E at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals in Lancashire, and the Countess of Chester Trust in Cheshire, waited more than 12 hours.

The Royal Berkshire, which covers Reading, saw the largest proportionate increase, with a more than five-fold rise from 980 6,290 patients. It has been approached to comment.

At the other end of the scale, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals managed to half the proportion of patients waiting 12 hours.

Look up the situation at your local A&E in our interactive model below.  

The Royal Berkshire, which covers Reading, saw the largest proportionate increase, with a more than five-fold rise from 980 6,290 patients.

Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader and Treasury spokeswoman, said: ‘These statistics lay bare just how stretched our NHS is as it braces for yet another winter crisis. Fixing these shockingly long A&E delays is literally a matter of life and death.’

Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader and Treasury spokeswoman, said a winter taskforce was needed to protect patients in the colder months. 

‘These statistics lay bare just how stretched our NHS is as it braces for yet another winter crisis. Fixing these shockingly long A&E delays is literally a matter of life and death,’ she said.

‘The Conservative Party has left an appalling legacy of A&E departments struggling at both ends: overwhelmed with patients forced into A&E because they can’t access community care, as well as patients who are well enough to leave hospital but can’t because the social care doesn’t exist.

‘The government must take urgent action to break the cycle of the annual winter crisis and that starts by making the NHS and social care their top priorities in the Budget. 

‘We need to see urgent action to winterproof the NHS, alongside reforms to shore up social care, so our health and care services no longer lurch from crisis to crisis.’

North Bristol also saw a huge increase in 12 hour waits, with a three-fold rise from 1,595 to 4,895. Harrogate and District in Yorkshire, and and Surrey and Sussex Trusts  also both experienced increases of more than 175 per cent. 

It comes after Health Secretary Wes Streeting admitted NHS care can be a ‘death sentence’ for some patients.

He launched a consultation on the future of the NHS, promising to put patients and staff at the heart of its forthcoming 10-year health plan.

Mr Streeting said that the NHS is going through the ‘worst crisis in its history’ while Sir Keir Starmer said that transformation of the health service would be a ‘moment in our history’.

And the Prime Minister called for better use of technology to make the NHS ‘fit for the next 75 years’.

Speaking at an event launching the consultation in east London, Mr Streeting said: ‘The NHS is going through what is objectively the worst crisis in its history, whether it’s people struggling to get access to their GP, dialling 999 and an ambulance not arriving in time, turning up to A&E departments and waiting far too long, sometimes on trolleys in corridors, or going through the ordeal of knowing that you’re waiting for a diagnosis that could be the difference between life and death.

‘Worse still, receiving a prognosis that amounts to a death sentence that could have been avoided because the NHS didn’t reach you in time.

‘That is, I’m afraid, the daily reality in the NHS today.’

He urged NHS staff and patients to take part in the ‘national conversation’ by sharing their views online via change.nhs.uk until the start of next year.

‘We feel really strongly that the best ideas aren’t going to come from politicians in Whitehall,’ Mr Streeting said.

‘They’re going to come from staff working right across the country and, crucially, patients, because our experiences as patients are also really important to understanding what the future of the NHS needs to be and what it could be with the right ideas.’