Leading A&E doctors across the UK have raised concerns about the pressures emergency departments will face this winter, with just 3% saying they are well prepared for the colder months.
Overcrowding, corridor care and a looming surge in demand are “creating perfect conditions for a terrible winter”, according to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM).
Experts also warned the NHS is at the point “where we can’t tell where one crisis ends and the next begins”.
The RCEM’s latest survey of 163 doctors in charge of A&E departments across the UK found that more than nine in 10 (92%) described current pressure as either high or very high, while 88% said they are under greater strain now than this time a year ago.
Around nine in 10 (91%) told the poll they were very or extremely worried about pressures in the coming months.
Dr Ian Higginson, president of the RCEM, said: “Overcrowding, corridor care, the impending surge of demand from winter, and lack of meaningful preparations, are creating perfect conditions for a terrible winter.
“Colleagues from across the four nations have been crystal clear: we are not managing now and we simply are not ready for winter.
“We have patients scattered all over our departments, many stuck in trolleys or on chairs for hours upon hours. The sickest and most injured among them can’t get into a hospital bed and end up staying with us, sometimes for days.
“It’s a disgraceful state of affairs and I cannot believe it has been allowed to get this bad. Patients are dying unnecessarily every week whilst politicians continue to focus on the wrong solutions.”
Of the 119 responses gathered from A&E clinical leads in England, almost nine in 10 (89%) described pressure at the moment as high or very high.
Almost two-thirds (65%) said emergency departments are under more pressure now than a year ago, while 97% warned that A&Es are not well prepared for winter.
Meanwhile, 60% described their emergency department as actively unsafe.
The latest NHS England data shows there was an average of 3,310 patients who received corridor care each day in September, with 2,549 in A&E departments and 761 in other hospital areas.
This is up from an average of 2,865 per day in August, made up of 2,297 in emergency departments and 568 in other areas.
Meanwhile, the number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England from a decision to admit to actually being admitted stood at 50,582 in September, up from 44,951 in August.
Dr Higginson said: “With year-round pressure hitting departments, the vast majority of us have no spare capacity to help deal with the cold months.
“It was not always this way. Less than a decade ago, the annual NHS ‘winter crisis’ was declared when waiting times and overcrowding reached a fraction of what we now experience throughout the year. We’ve now got to the point where we can’t tell where one crisis ends and the next begins.
“We need governments from all four nations to step up, heed our warning – and act now. Not in a few years, or even a few months – now.
“Existing winter preparations represent the same old same old, and will yield the same disastrous results.
“Our clinical leads agree. Knowing that, it beggars belief that we are going into winter with nearly a thousand fewer beds than last year, and with recruitment freezes stopping us recruiting doctors and nurses to help reduce risk for our patients or to get hospitals working.”
The RCEM has written directly to Health Secretary Yvette Cooper to express its concerns and make recommendations.
It comes after she warned that the NHS faces a more challenging winter than normal, as she announced a £140 million boost for urgent care in England.