New figures released this morning by NHS England confirm that the Government’s A&E waiting time target was missed for 52 consecutive weeks.

Last week, as many as one in five patients in some parts of the country waited longer than the four-hour target as hospitals struggle with a summer A&E crisis.

Record numbers of patients - who have been let down elsewhere - are turning to hospital A&Es for support this summer. Older people who have lost social care or patients who struggle for GP appointments under David Cameron now come through the doors of A&E departments.

A report into one A&E department, released yesterday by the Care Quality Commission following an inspection in May, demanded improvements after finding the department “frequently short staffed” despite a £1 million agency nurse overspend. It found patients arriving by ambulance forced to wait for an hour on corridor trolleys; over 300 patients caught in queues of ambulances for more than an hour outside the hospital; patients waiting two hours longer than declared, leaving the hospital accused of “distorted” waiting times; and an overflow ward for A&E, intended for exceptional use, had not closed in the last year due to unprecedented patient numbers.

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

“This sustained slump in A&E simply cannot be ignored by David Cameron any longer. The NHS is heading towards the rocks and we urgently need some honesty from the Prime Minister about how he plans to turn it around.

“David Cameron’s only response to date has been to try to redefine his target and spin his way out of trouble. Such self-serving complacency is dangerous for patients and cannot continue. Cameron must face up to the scale of the challenge facing A&E and come up with credible proposals to ease the pressure.

“The crisis in A&E is a problem of this Government’s making. It has got harder for people to get a GP appointment while social care has been cut to the bone. The result is record numbers coming through A&E and thousands of older people trapped in hospital. The pressure is backing up through A&E, ambulance response times are getting worse and waiting lists at a six-year high.

“If this problem is not addressed now, it will drag down the rest of the NHS. The NHS cannot afford another year of living dangerously like the one we have just had. People can see how quickly the NHS is heading downhill and they are becoming increasingly worried about it. It explains why you can’t trust David Cameron with the NHS.”