Reading Lib Dems call for end to 12-hour A&E waits as corridor care crisis worsens under Labour

Reading Liberal Democrats are calling for a £1.5bn plan to end 12-hour waits in A&E within a year. This comes as A&Es across the country are facing rocketing waits for patients in desperate need of care.

The new Liberal Democrat plan would introduce a new law to enshrine the right for patients to be seen in A&E within 12 hours, warning that “18 months of Labour failure” has worsened the NHS crisis left by the Conservatives.

Liberal Democrat analysis of the latest NHS England data shows that 2025 is projected to see the worst level of 12-hour trolley waits in A&E ever recorded. Locally, a shocking 6,450 patients waited 12 hours in the Royal Berkshire Hospital A&E in 2025.

The Lib Dem plan would end 12-hour waits and hospital ‘corridor care’ within a year.

• Making 6,000 extra hospital beds available to end corridor care within a year.
• Investing in 1,000 more staffed hospital beds.
• Extra investment in social care to reserve 1,600 “safety net” social care places each day, for hospitals to discharge into if they need to.
• Extra step-down care - freeing up 1,200 beds a day.
• Making more beds available in care homes and hospitals.

The proposal would be funded by cancelling the planned medicine price hike agreed with the Trump administration before Christmas, which is set to cost the NHS over £3bn a year despite minimal benefits for patients. 

Commenting, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Reading Borough Council, Councillor Anne Thompson, said:

“For too long, people in Reading have suffered with degrading waits and treatment in hospital corridors. Our NHS staff are working so hard, but have been let down by those in power. It is a national emergency, and it is devastating our NHS - we need a real plan to fix it.

“Liberal Democrats are offering the bold solutions we need to free up our hospitals and end the A&E crisis once and for all. No government should tolerate this disaster, and ministers should be held legally accountable if they continue to fail in their duty to protect patients.”