Viral video shows the reality of A&E waiting times at NHS hospitals

A viral video of a nurse telling A&E patients how long they'll have to wait to be seen by a doctor shows just how stretched the NHS is.

In the video, the nurse at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, could be heard telling people they faced a long wait as they had 170 patients and 90 were in the queue.

She said: "Our current wait time for a doctor is seven-and-a-half hours. I will estimate that by the time I go home in the morning at 8 o’clock, some of you will still be here waiting for a doctor as the wait will get up to 12 or 13 hours."

She added that there were "no beds" and that they were trying to make space before asking any relatives of patients to leave because the hospital is "running out of space".

The latest NHS England figures show a record 24,138 people had to wait more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England in April from a decision to admit to actually being admitted.

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Around 72.3 per cent of patients in England were seen within four hours at A&Es in April, the second lowest percentage in records going back to November 2010.

Stephanie Lawton, chief operating officer at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, told Yahoo News they had experienced "extremely high demand" for emergency care services.

She added: "Our teams are working hard to assess and treat patients as quickly and effectively as possible to reduce delays, prioritising those in most clinical need.”

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