163 doctors run Britain's A&E departments. Three in every hundred say they are ready
What happened
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine asked the doctors who run A&E departments across the UK a simple question: are you ready for winter? One hundred and sixty-three clinical leads answered. Three per cent said they feel well prepared. That is around five people out of 163. The rest of the survey, reported on 20 October 2026, reads the same way. Ninety-two per cent rated the pressure on their department right now as high or very high. Ninety-one per cent said they were very or extremely worried about the months ahead. Eighty-eight per cent said they are under more strain than they were at this time last year. Dr Ian Higginson, the college's president, did not soften it. He said overcrowding, corridor care and the coming surge in winter demand, combined with preparations he considers inadequate, are creating "perfect conditions for a terrible winter". He said colleagues across all four UK nations tell him they are "not managing now" and "simply are not ready for winter". He called it a "disgraceful state of affairs" and said patients are dying unnecessarily every week. Going into winter with nearly a thousand fewer beds than last year, he said, "beggars belief". The college has written to the Health Secretary, Yvette Cooper, with its concerns and recommendations. The letter follows her own warning, two days earlier, that the NHS faces a more challenging winter than normal, alongside an announcement of almost £140 million for 14 urgent care schemes in England.
Why this matters
Surveys of professionals can be easy to wave away. Everyone says they need more money. But two things make this one harder to dismiss. The first is who answered. These are not junior staff guessing. They are the people who hold the rota, who decide where patients go when there is nowhere to put them, and who carry the can when a department fills up. If almost all of them are saying the same thing at the same time, that is not grumbling. It is a weather report from people standing outside. The second is that the survey lines up with the official numbers. In September, NHS England recorded an average of 3,310 patients a day receiving corridor care: 2,549 in A&E itself, and 761 in other parts of the hospital. In the same month, 50,582 people in England waited more than 12 hours between a decision to admit them and actually getting a bed, up from 44,951 in August. Those figures come from the NHS's own data, not from a campaign group. Flu also started early this autumn. Levels in September were low but higher than in the previous four years, and a new Covid strain has pushed cases up. Winter pressure usually arrives in December and January. The worry is that it is arriving on top of a system that is already full.
What the evidence actually says
A few honest caveats, because this story gets stretched in both directions. The survey is a survey. It measures what 163 senior doctors believe and feel, which is valuable but is not the same as a measurement of how many beds exist or how long people wait. The waiting-time and corridor-care figures are the hard data; the survey is the professional judgement sitting alongside it. "Nearly a thousand fewer beds than last year" is Dr Higginson's figure, given in interviews. It is worth treating as a claim from the college rather than an agreed national statistic. The £140 million is real, and so is the criticism of it. The money funds 14 schemes including new urgent treatment centres, same-day emergency care, new ambulances and A&E upgrades, with another 25 new or expanded urgent care sites first announced in April due to open for winter. It sits inside a larger programme of almost £2 billion in urgent care building work up to 2030. The Royal College of Nursing described the winter package as a "sticking plaster". Both things can be true: new capacity is being built, and it may not arrive in time to change this winter. What nobody in this story disputes is the direction of travel in the data. Twelve-hour waits went up between August and September. Flu came early. Those are not contested points.
Qurexa perspective
We deliver prescriptions and support people with taking their medicines, mostly older people and people managing several long-term conditions. So we see one small corner of this problem up close. A number of A&E attendances start with something that was manageable a fortnight earlier. A repeat prescription that ran out. An inhaler that was empty. A blister pack that got confusing after a dose changed. None of that is the cause of a national bed shortage, and we would not pretend otherwise. But it is the part an ordinary household can actually control. The practical version is dull and it works: order repeats before you run low, not on the last day. Know which of your medicines you must not stop suddenly. Have a plan for a weekend or a bank holiday. If you have had a dose change recently, check that the box in your hand matches what you were told. If getting to a pharmacy is the obstacle, delivery exists, and not only from us. Many community pharmacies deliver locally. Ask yours.
Practical advice
If you need urgent care this winter, go and get it. Nothing here is a reason to sit at home with chest pain or a child who is struggling to breathe. A&E is under pressure, not closed. For everything short of that, the route matters: NHS 111 online or by phone can tell you where to go, and can book you into an urgent treatment centre or out-of-hours appointment. It saves a journey to the wrong place. Pharmacy First lets community pharmacists in England assess and, for several conditions, prescribe for things like earache, sore throat, sinusitis, urinary infections in some women, impetigo, shingles and insect bites. No appointment, no referral. New pathways added this autumn cover more ground again. Flu and Covid vaccination still matters, especially if you are eligible on the NHS. Flu arrived early this year. Pharmacies gave 4.61 million flu jabs last year, so there is capacity. Keep a short list of your medicines, doses and allergies in your purse or on your phone. If you do end up in a busy department, it saves time and reduces the chance of a mistake. If you care for someone, write down their normal baseline: how they usually walk, eat, and talk. Staff who have never met them cannot tell what has changed unless someone says.
What to know
A Royal College of Emergency Medicine survey of 163 A&E clinical leads across the UK, reported on 20 October 2026, found just 3% feel well prepared for winter. Ninety-two per cent rated current pressure as high or very high, 91% were very or extremely worried about the coming months, and 88% said strain is worse than a year ago. NHS England data shows an average of 3,310 patients a day in corridor care in September, and 50,582 people waiting over 12 hours for a bed after a decision to admit, up from 44,951 in August. The college has written to Health Secretary Yvette Cooper, two days after she announced almost £140 million for 14 urgent care schemes and warned of a harder winter than normal. For households, the useful steps are ordinary ones: order repeat medicines early, use NHS 111 and Pharmacy First for non-emergencies, and take up vaccinations you are eligible for. Sources: LBC, "A&E facing perfect storm ahead of winter - as leading medics warn only 3% prepared for severe pressures", 20 October 2026, https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/emergency-department-winter-crisis-5Hjdk8D_2/ ; Department of Health and Social Care / GOV.UK, "£140 million boost to urgent care to ease winter pressures on NHS", 18 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/140-million-boost-to-urgent-care-to-ease-winter-pressures-on-nhs ; Express & Star, "Leading A&E medics sound alarm over NHS winter pressures", 20 October 2026, https://www.expressandstar.com/uk-news/leading-ae-medics-sound-alarm-over-nhs-winter-pressures-9297704 This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.
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