Woking MP Will Forster has revealed that there have been 316 waits of 12 hours or longer for admissions from A&E at Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in June and July. A decade ago, no one waited this long.

The data so far on the summer months show a surge in patients waiting more than 12 hours from when a decision to admit a patient is made to that patient actually being admitted.

During summer 2015 no “trolley waits” were recorded at Ashford and St Peter’s, with only 47 across England as a whole. The 316 waits reflect a national pattern.

Mr Forster first raised this issue in July, when he spoke in the House of Commons to demand a government investigation into why Woking residents are facing such lengthy and unreasonable waiting times.

He cited data that revealed in June only 66 per cent of patients admitted to Woking’s local A&E at St Peter’s Hospital were seen within four hours – far below both the national target and the national average of 76 per cent.

Long delays can have deadly consequences. Analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has stated that 16,600 deaths were linked to long A&E waits before admission in 2024.

Mr Forster said that the annual “winter crisis” in the NHS had turned into a “permacrisis”. He added: “Local health services are buckling under pressure all year round, not just in winter.

“We need an emergency package of measures to protect patients and their families this winter and relieve the pressure on A&E waiting rooms.

“Unless ministers take urgent action we could be sleepwalking towards disaster this winter.”

Mr Forster said he would like to see increasing vaccine uptake for seasonal illnesses, increasing access to pharmacies and expanding the number of out-of-hours GPs.