New official figures reveal that Accident and Emergency departments across the country are under greater pressure than last year, operating at traditionally winter levels before the season begins. Labour will today warn of “severe storms ahead” as the Government fails to take action to support England’s A&Es.

Since April, more than 100,000 extra patients have waited longer than 4 hours to be seen compared to the same period last year. Whilst an extra 25,000 patients waited over 4 hours on trolleys for a hospital bed in the same period. Meanwhile, the NHS is losing 75,000 days each month to ‘bed blocking’ as collapsing social care services leave older patients unable to be discharged.

Further figures reveal that ambulances in every part of England are taking longer to reach the most serious 'category A’ callouts, that include patients suffering strokes or cardiac arrest. When every minute without medical attention decreases survival chances, ambulances are taking up to a third longer to arrive. The most serious callers in the East of England now wait six minutes - a minute and a half longer than two years ago - whilst South Western ambulance service took 48 seconds longer.

Andy Burnham, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said:

“A&E is the barometer of the whole health and care system and all year it has been warning us of severe storms ahead. David Cameron failed to act on those warnings and, as a result, has left the NHS on the brink of its most dangerous winter in years.

“These worrying figures expose the intense pressure that England’s A&Es and hospitals are under. Too many are already sailing dangerously close to the wind and that is before the winter has even started. Ambulances are being trapped in queues outside A&E, unable to hand patients over. In turn, people dialling 999 - even the highest priority cases - are left waiting longer for an ambulance.

"It is simply unacceptable that the Government is allowing the NHS to go into this winter in a worse position than last year. The simple truth is that A&E has got worse and worse and worse on David Cameron’s watch. He must act now and produce a firm plan of action if we are to prevent the collapse of emergency services this winter.”