This inequity must be addressed as a matter of urgency

Jonathan Ellis

The average waiting time for the under 60s was 2 hours 51 minutes, compared to 4 hours 34 minutes for those over 60.

The survey was carried out by the Association of Community Health Councils for England and Wales (ACHCEW).

Click here to see a table of waiting times

It also revealed significant regional variations. Average waiting times in London and the South East were almost two hours higher than the average for England, Wales and Northern Ireland as a whole.

People waiting in A&E are not necessarily waiting for treatment. They may be waiting to be transferred to an appropriate ward, waiting for tests, waiting for social services, or waiting to be discharged.

Serious concern

However, Donna Covey, ACHCEW director said: "These figures are a cause for serious concern.

"It's not clear why older people are spending so much more time in A&E departments than younger patients.

"In some circumstances it may be that there are good clinical reasons but factors such as a lack of places in nursing homes, transportation problems or problems with social service provision may also be causing unnecessarily long waits."

The charity Help the Aged said it was "saddened and disappointed" by the findings.

Jonathan Ellis, the charity's Health Policy Officer, said many elderly people were waiting much more than the government's target of a maximum of four fours.

"This inequity must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

"Help the Aged welcomes the research, and hopes that it will help to ensure that older people receive a fair deal in casualty departments right across the country."

Unsatisfactory

Mr John Heyworth is president of British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine and an A&E consultant at Southampton General Hospital.

The pressures on A&E are a manifestation of the pressures on the whole system

Mr John Heyworth

He told BBC News Online that the longer waits for elderly patients might be due to a fact that a greater proportion of them were admitted for further treatment, rather than discharged.

However, there were also problems finding patients adequate social care once they left hospital.

Mr Heyworth said: "All patients are waiting too long in A&E departments.

"The pressures on A&E are a manifestation of the pressures on the whole system. There are no beds available, and so patients tend to be 'warehoused' in A&E which we regard as being extremely unsatisfactory."

Harmful

Professor Cameron Swift, president of the British Geriatrics Society, said long waits on trollies were notoriously harmful for older people.

He said: "In many cases, expert intervention by specialist departments of Geriatric Medicine at or before the need for emergency admission to A&E can pre-empt the need for lengthy periods in busy A&E departments.

"At present it is often a case of too little too late because local trusts do not give this whole area a sufficiently high profile in their strategies."

Paul Burstow MP, Liberal Democrat spokesman for older people, said the figures revealed that a "caste system" was in operation in the NHS.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "Many people, including older people, still wait too long in A&E departments.

"Under the NHS Plan, the maximum wait in A&E will have been reduced to four hours by 2004 and it will be measured from when a patient arrives rather than from the decision to admit them to a bed."