Responding to the Liberal Democrat's analysis showing the number of patients making their own way to A&E in an emergency has increased by nearly 40% since 2019 Rory Deighton, director of the NHS Confederation’s Acute Network, said:

“It is worrying that so many patients have felt they needed to take the risk of transporting themselves or a loved one to hospital in an emergency.

“This data is yet more evidence of the immense pressure that the urgent and emergency care system is under, following a decade of underinvestment in NHS capital, estate, workforce and social care. Last year this pressure was further exacerbated by the health service going through its most difficult winter on record combined with ongoing industrial action – including by ambulance staff.

“This sustained pressure has carried on into this winter and beyond, with long waits for ambulances and to be seen in A&E. Patients being held in ambulances or treated in corridors or extra beds in wards represent standards of care that none of our members want to be offering. We cannot let long response times and handover delays become the new normal.

“But ambulance teams and their colleagues in emergency departments have been working together to address handover delays at hospital and we have seen some improvements. We know that teams have struggled to get back on the road and respond to calls as quickly as they would like. But leaders know more progress is needed to hit the response targets.”