During the late nineties it was not uncommon for patients to wait over 12 hours for admission to hospital and there were isolated reports of patients waiting between 24 and 48 hours on trolleys in accident and emergency and sometimes in corridors. My interest in this problem and the long delays experienced by patients in Emergency Departments in the UK developed during early work with the Modernisation Agency.
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References

1. NHS Modernisation Agency. Ideal Design of Emergency Access Programme. Department of Health. 2002.
2. Ipsos MORI. What we want from our public services, 2000. http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/poll. aspx?oItemId=1627.
3. Health Care Commission. National NHS patient survey programme Emergency department survey 2008. http://www.cqc.org.uk/_db/_documents/Full_national_results_with_historical_comparisons.pdf
4. Bell D Darling K Understanding waiting times in Accident and Emergency and potential impact on patients and beds. (letter) BMJ June 2005.
5. Institute of Medicine (IOM). Hospital-Based Emergency Care: At the Breaking Point. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 2006a.
6. Fatovich DM, Nagree Y, Sprivulis P. Access block causes emergency department overcrowding and ambulance diversion in Perth, Western Australia. Emerg Med J 2005; 22: 351–354.