Half of A&E patients in Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital faced waits of four hours or more in October.

More than 1,000 of these patients had to spend more than 12 hours in the department before being admitted, transferred, or discharged.

North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan is now calling for immediate action to address the crisis in England's emergency care.

She has tabled a motion in the House of Commons urging government intervention and is set to meet the interim CEO of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust to discuss the ongoing challenges in the county.

Ms Morgan, The Liberal Democrat spokesperson for health and social care highlights several alarming issues, including long waiting times, reports of patients dying in A&E waiting rooms, and the lack of sufficient clinical monitoring for those yet to be seen.

She said: "The current state of our emergency departments is nothing short of a tragedy.

"Patients are being failed when they are at their most vulnerable, and the burden on NHS workers is unsustainable."

The motion calls for the presence of a fully qualified clinician in every A&E waiting room to monitor patients.

It also seeks to cut ambulance response times to ensure life-saving interventions are not delayed, increase the number of beds available in A&E departments, reduce delayed discharges to free up hospital capacity and commit to cross-party talks to create a long-term fix for social care.

Ms Morgan has had several cases shared with her and one of the most recent cases was an elderly patient who had been left on a plastic chair for 36 hours in distress at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Ms Morgan said: "Every hour, lives are being put at risk because of chronic underfunding and poor planning.

"It’s appalling to hear reports of patients dying in waiting rooms or going unmonitored for hours, including harrowing cases here in Shropshire – this simply cannot continue."

She believes the crisis has been exacerbated by the decision to increase national insurance contributions for GPs and care providers.

She claims this has put further strain on an already overstretched system.

Ms Morgan added: "The government must act now to restore trust in our NHS.

"That means putting fully qualified clinicians in every A&E waiting room, cutting ambulance response times, and addressing the wider pressures on hospitals by fixing social care.

"These are not abstract issues; they are matters of life and death.

"The last government had years to prepare for this moment, but instead they let services crumble.

"Enough is enough – we need a change."

The MP's concerns follow the release of NHS statistics which confirmed Shropshire as one of the areas with the worst emergency delays in the country.