Around 150 of the UK’s leading A&E doctors have said they are very worried about the pressure that Emergency Departments (EDs) will face this winter, according to a survey published today (20 October 2026) by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM).
RCEM says this should serve as a stark reminder to government that action is needed right now to avert disaster. The current plans, including what was announced last weekend, won’t cut it.
163 ED clinical leads – the doctors in charge of most of the A&E departments in the country – responded to a survey asking how they are managing and their views ahead of winter.
The findings were stark.
The vast majority (91%) told RCEM they were either ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ concerned about the pressure their ED will experience this winter and just 3% said they were ‘well prepared’ for the cold months.
Last weekend, the Department of Health and Social Care announced £150m for 14 new urgent care schemes across England. RCEM welcomes investment into Urgent and Emergency Care but maintains that money is still not being spent in the right places.
Dr Ian Higginson, RCEM President, 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.”
Despite recent reassurance from NHS leaders and politicians, things seem to be getting worse, not better. More than nine in 10 (92%) of survey respondents described current ED pressure as ‘high’ or ‘very high’, while 88% said they were under greater strain now than last year.
Around two thirds said their ED was unsafe.
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.”
RCEM’s State of Emergency Care reports lay out how we can avert the crisis in the future. The College is calling for better staffed departments, for hospitals and systems to work effectively seven days a week, with bolstered bed capacity, and for investment in the things that enable patients to be discharged quickly. This is where any available investment should go.
“It takes political will to make overcrowding a priority, along with leadership within hospitals for this problem to be owned beyond the walls of our hammered departments.”
In England RCEM has written directly to the Secretary of State expressing its concerns and offering some specific last-minute actions that could be taken.
RCEM’s survey asked clinical leads from across the UK a series of questions about current pressure and their preparedness for winter, running from 30 September until 2 October.
Of the 119 respondents based in England, representing the majority of EDs in the country:
• 89% described current pressure as ‘high’ or ‘very high’
• Around two-thirds (65%) said EDs are under more pressure now than they were a year ago
• 97% said their ED was not well prepared for winter
• 60% described their EDs as actively unsafe
