In one recent case, Michael Woodcock, from Harrogate, endured an eight-hour wait for a doctor at Scarborough Hospital with acute appendicitis.
“The ward was really busy, the hospital was really busy, there were beds on the sides of the corridors and lots of frustrated people in the waiting room who had been there longer than I had… I had to stay overnight as there was a risk that the appendix would burst,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“At that point there were no beds, so I had to either sleep in the waiting room in a chair, or I actually asked the nurse if it was alright to go and sleep in my car.
“So I ended up getting some blankets from the nurses and sleeping in the car for a few hours and then heading back into the hospital in the morning for the operation.”