500,000 make own way to A&E

Rise in stranded urgent care patients

- MARTIN BAGOT

MORE and more desperately ill people are having to make their own way to hospital.

Patients in need of "very urgent emergency care" arriving at A&E by means other than an ambulance has increased by almost 40% since 2019.

There were some 504,276 "Code 2" cases last year, a rise of 2.4% on 2022. The NHS data was unearthed by the

Liberal Democrats, who warned the Government has created an "Uber ambulance crisis".