PATIENTS in A&E face serious complications from missing doses of prescription medicines while waiting days to be seen, a new report warns.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) study, released today, found that more than half of patients are not identified as being on time-critical medicines (TCM) within 30 minutes of arriving at an A&E.

Nearly seven in 10 doses are not administered within 30 minutes of the expected time.

TCM is prescribed to a patient for existing conditions, such as insulin for diabetes, Parkinson’s drugs, epilepsy medicines and tablets for preventing blood clots.

Last December, it emerged that an elderly man was left unable to swallow after waiting over two days in A&E without being given regular medication, and died four weeks later.

The 85-year-old, who had Parkinson’s, was sent to a hospital emergency department after a routine appointment — but massive delays saw his A&E wait go into a third day, with most of it spent on a bed in the corridor.

The study’s lead author, Dr Jonny Acheson, said that more needs to be done.

The Leicester-based emergency medicine consultant said that the findings “should serve as a call to action for both emergency medicine staff, as well as patients reliant on time-critical medications, to ensure no dose is ever missed in A&E.”

Dr Acheson, who has Parkinson’s, added that while everyone has a role to play, “the NHS must think about how they identify people taking these types of medication and how they are able to ensure they receive their doses on time, every time while they are in the emergency department.

“These medicines are critical to the quality of these patients’ lives and we have a duty of care to ensure that they receive them when they should.”

The RCEM study focused on oral levodopa for Parkinson’s and insulin for diabetes, as these are common in patients in A&E and must be given on time, using data from 136 emergency departments for more than 13,000 patients.

RCEM president-elect Dr Ian Higginson said the issue is an example of one “we should not be having to fix in our emergency departments” and “has risen to prominence because of the increasing number of our patients who are having to endure ridiculously long waits in our emergency departments — 12, 24, 48 hours and even longer.”

“Missing doses of medication for illnesses such as Parkinson’s or diabetes is not just inconvenient, it is dangerous, and missing multiple doses can have serious consequences,” he warned.

Parkinson’s UK praised the RCEM’s work while Diabetes UK said delayed or missed insulin doses can be a potentially life-threatening emergency.

Keep Our NHS Public co-chairman Dr Tony O’Sullivan added: “What was a minor issue when patients were being triaged, treated, admitted or discharged within four hours up to 2010, and even to 2015 before austerity took the wheels off the NHS, is now a major stress for A&E staff and risk for patients.

“How can short-staffed teams safely monitor packed waiting rooms and patients in corridors on trolleys awaiting a hospital bed?

“The lethal Tory inheritance left for this government has to be seen as an emergency and Labour must act now: fund urgent care — GPs, community, A&Es, ward staff and mental health.

“But the focus has to shift from partnership with private companies and deals with AI and data companies to safe urgent care for the population, support for NHS staff and the saving of lives at the front line.”

An NHS spokesperson said it welcomed the report and will “look closely at the findings.”

Meanwhile, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) is marking World Health Day today by calling on the UK’s four governments to heed the advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and invest in “healthy beginnings to build hopeful futures.”

The union is urging politicians to change tack with investment in maternity care across the country in the doldrums.

RCM chief executive Gill Walton said: “We absolutely support the WHO’s calls for governments to invest in women’s healthcare: it’s a call the RCM has made itself.

“Women’s healthcare has been overlooked and underfunded for far too long.”