A staggering 440,000 patients in England were forced to wait over 12 hours in A&E last year, official figures show. 

New NHS data found this was an increase of 30,000 on the previous year. By comparison, just 1,200 waited this long a decade ago. 

Almost two thirds of A&E attendees at England's worst performing hospitals were also left waiting more than four hours for care in the year to March 2024.

Under health service guidelines, 76 per cent of casualty patients should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of being seen. 

But overall, only 72 per cent of patients in England were seen within this timeframe, according to latest NHS data for 2023/24. 

Full trust-by-trust results can be viewed through our interactive search table. 

It comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described the £160billion-a-year service as 'broken'. 

The Prime Minister warned it must 'reform or die', vowing to undertake the 'biggest reimagining' of the dishevelled system since its birth in the 1940s.

It followed a damning report by Lord Darzi, a pioneering surgeon and former Labour health minister, which concluded the NHS is in a 'critical condition'. 

According to the health service's fresh data, Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust recorded the worst four-hour A&E performance in the country last year. 

Almost two thirds of patients (63 per cent) had to wait too long to be seen at the Trust's A&E facilities — 55,056 in total. 

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was the second worst in the country with 61 per cent of patients seen outside the four-hour target.

It meant over 83,000 had to wait too long.

The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Trust in London followed, with 58 per cent of patients waiting longer than the guidelines. 

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust both saw 57 per cent of patients outside the timeframe. 

Just three trusts, by comparison did meet the NHS's target of seeing over three quarters of patients within four hours.

These were Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (77 per cent), Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (81 per cent) and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (84 per cent). 

Not one, however, hit the previous benchmark of 95 per cent which was watered down in March 2023. 

NHS England has said the target will rise to 78 per cent by March 2025. 

Responding to the figures, Dr Adrian Boyle, president of The Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told MailOnline: 'This data doesn’t capture where the real harm lies, which is in waits of 12 hours or more, which have skyrocketed over the last decade.

'We know these waits are linked to thousands of avoidable deaths each year and they disproportionately affect the most vulnerable in our society. 

'If the government is serious about eliminating “two tier healthcare” as the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said in his speech yesterday, urgent focus must go into driving down these long waits.'

Rory Deighton, the NHS Confederation’s acute director, also told MailOnline: 'This new data is further evidence of the pressures that the urgent and emergency care system is under, with patients facing long waits in A&E to get the care they need.

'The government’s pledge to bring more treatment closer to home and promote preventative care to keep people out of hospital is the key long-term solution to reducing demand on A&Es.' 

Meanwhile, Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive, NHS Providers, said: 'Nobody in the NHS wants people to have long waits for treatment. The NHS has had its busiest summer ever and pressure is non-stop on busy A&Es.

'Progress has been made on the four-hour target as trusts work flat out to see patients as quickly as possible but some areas face particular challenges. Careful planning is in place for winter when pressures are likely to intensify.'

All of the Trusts named as low performers for four-hour waits to be seen in A&E were contacted for comment.

The new analysis of NHS data comes as latest monthly A&E waiting time figures, released earlier this month, showed 2.1million sick Brits showed up to A&E departments in August.

Of those, 76.3 per cent were treated within four hours, meaning the target was met nationally for the first time since it was brought in. 

This figure, however, stood at around 83 per cent pre-pandemic.

It comes as health leaders warned yesterday that the Government's repeated claims that the 'NHS is broken' risks 'spooking' patients and putting them off seeking care. 

Insiders say they understand why the Health Secretary wants the public to know what a 'difficult inheritance' Labour has been given. 

But they fear he has adopted the 'wrong tone', which is demoralising staff and could cause ­'lasting damage'. 

Mr Streeting, however, hit back at the criticism in his speech to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, insisting he would 'not back down'.

He said: 'I know the doctor's diagnosis can sometimes be hard to hear.

'But if you don't have an accurate diagnosis, you won't provide the correct prescription.

'And when you put protecting the reputation of the NHS above protecting patients, you're not helping the NHS, you're killing it with kindness.

'I won't back down. The NHS is broken, but it's not beaten, and together we will turn it around.'

He once again blamed the Conservatives for the 'grim' state of the NHS, highlighting record waiting lists, A&E delays and low patient satisfaction.

But he promised his 10-year-plan for NHS reform would create a 'world-class' service.