A bold plan to tackle the 'deadly corridor crisis' in England's A&E departments has been unveiled by the Liberal Democrats. But here's where it gets controversial...
The party proposes a £1.5 billion strategy to ensure patients receive treatment or admission within 12 hours of arriving at A&E, a legal right they believe will save lives.
Sir Ed Davey, the party leader, has called for a new legal duty to address the issue of long waits in emergency care. The Lib Dems argue that their plan, funded by scrapping a UK-US pharmaceuticals deal, will provide much-needed relief to the NHS and its patients.
However, the Department of Health and Social Care has a different perspective. They claim that the government has already invested an extra £26 billion into the NHS and that it will take time to address the challenges inherited.
The numbers speak for themselves. Since the pandemic in 2021, the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours for admission has skyrocketed. The latest NHS figures from November 2025 show a staggering 50,648 people in England faced this prolonged wait.
And this is the part most people miss: the Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimates that in 2024, there were 16,644 excess deaths associated with these long A&E waits.
Sir Ed Davey emphasizes that this crisis is a disservice to the dedicated healthcare professionals working in the NHS. He believes it's time to restore the standards we expect from our healthcare system and ensure that our tax contributions are reflected in the quality of care provided.
The Lib Dems plan to raise the £1.5 billion by canceling a medicines deal agreed upon by the UK government with the US administration last year. This agreement, which keeps American imports of UK medicines tariff-free for three years, comes at a cost: the NHS is required to increase its spending on new treatments by 25%.
According to the Financial Times, the Department of Health and Social Care estimates that this deal will result in a £1.5 billion increase in medicines spending over the next three years.
The Lib Dems argue that by reclaiming this £1.5 billion, they can expand hospital capacity and create social care beds, making around 6,000 more beds available each day. Their proposals also include reserving more places in care homes and providing funding for people leaving hospital and carers supporting family members at home.
Under their plan, ministers would have a statutory duty to ensure patients wait no longer than 12 hours for admission, transfer, or discharge after arriving in A&E. Sir Ed believes their package of proposals could completely eliminate 12-hour A&E waits by the end of the year.
He adds, "Never again should anyone have to witness their loved one die on a trolley in a hospital corridor."
When asked if the plans are ambitious enough, Sir Ed asserts that his party would go even further to address long waits in A&E if they were in government. He emphasizes the need to get waiting times back to four hours or less and highlights that the Lib Dems are the only party actively discussing this issue.
The Labour government, which has made getting the NHS "back on its feet" a priority, has focused on reducing waiting times for non-urgent, consultant-led treatments. While NHS waiting lists for these treatments remain high, with around 7.4 million people waiting as of late 2025, the government has committed to investing more than £450 million in expanding urgent and emergency care facilities.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting acknowledges that even during the NHS's best days, there were patients on trolleys in corridors, falling short of his ambitions and expectations for the health service. He emphasizes the importance of finding the right balance between celebrating progress and being honest about challenges.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson states that "corridor care is unacceptable." They highlight the government's efforts to tackle the situation by delivering more vaccinations, building new emergency and mental health crisis centers, and deploying additional ambulances. They also emphasize a medicine pricing deal that prioritizes patients and strengthens the life sciences sector without compromising frontline services.
The Conservatives, who were in power during the pandemic, have been approached for comment on their perspective on these proposals.
