Patients sleeping on trolleys and even in cupboards due to NHS crisis

Figures show that the number of people being forced to wait for 12 hours or more before being placed on a ward in NHS hospitals has increased dramatically in the last year.

Since the start of 2013, nearly 200 patients have has such a lengthy wait because wards are overcrowded and on the verge or crisis.

Earlier this week, the health secretary Jeremy Hunt revealed that more than four million extra people have had to descend on hospitals because of changes to GPs out of hours working arrangements.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the problem is so great that some patients have had to sleep in corridors and even cupboards because of a shortage of beds.

Of the patients which have had to wait more than 12 hours this years, 52 of them were at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS trusts.

Figures show that in the past eight years, the number of people using accident and emergency departments in England has risen from 17.7 million to 21.7 million.

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