NHS beds crisis contributed to 93-year-old's death, warns coroner

Credit: Getty Images/georgeclerk

By Daniel Pye

A coroner has issued a stark warning to NHS England and the government that the bed crisis is putting elderly patients at risk, following the death of a 93-year-old woman who spent "a long stay" in an overcrowded A&E waiting for a hospital bed.

This comes as a report published in the Emergency Medicine Journal has found that around one in five patients received corridor care in emergency departments earlier this year due to lack of beds preventing admission to wards.