HOSPITAL accident and emergency units are suffering their worst crisis since the founding of the NHS in 1948, damning figures showed yesterday.

New findings by NHS England reveal that the health service is on the brink of disaster, with A&E departments so overwhelmed that other hospital services are being withdrawn — including scheduled operations.

The NHS management body says waiting times in A&E departments are at their worst-ever levels, falling far short of government targets — with just 92.6 per cent of patients being seen within four hours.

This falls well short of the 95 per cent target, which was already lowered from 98 per cent after the coalition took power.

For major hospitals the position is even worse, with just 88.9 per cent of patients seen within four hours.

Sixteen of London’s 19 NHS hospital trusts missed the target, according to the figures that cover the last quarter of 2014.

The crisis follows four years of coalition government cuts, privatisation and a top-down NHS reorganisation which cost £3 billion.

NHS England released the figures as several hospital trusts activated “major incident” emergency measures because their A&E departments were being overwhelmed.

The hospitals affected were the Gloucester Royal, Cheltenham General Hospital, Scarborough Hospital in Yorkshire and the University Hospitals of North Midlands in Staffordshire.

Unison Yorkshire regional organiser Ray Gray said hospital staff are “at breaking point” with ambulances “typically” having to queue outside Scarborough Hospital.

He said that while other hospitals in his region had not declared major incidents, they were all facing similar pressures.

Up to a dozen ambulances waited for more than an hour outside Hull Royal Infirmary on Saturday and the hospital continued to be extremely busy this week, Mr Gray said.

“However you look at it, it comes down to government funding,” he commented.

Theatre nurse and chairman of GMB’s NHS committee Martin Jackson also stressed that “overstretched wards are not the fault of front-line NHS staff,” who are not getting the time needed to properly help patients.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham added: “This crisis in A&E has its roots in the government’s cuts to social care and GP access, and its disastrous decision to throw the NHS into the chaos of reorganisation.

“It is yet more proof that the NHS as you know it won’t survive another five years of David Cameron.”