A senior A&E consultant is one of 68 whose letter to the Prime Minister detailed how patients were left "dying in corridors" due to under-resourcing.

The open letter, signed by Jonathan Costello of the Royal Free in Hampstead, tells of how patients have been forced to sleep in clinics as makeshift wards and more than 120 patients who died prematurely while waiting in corridors for a hospital bed.

This comes as the NHS released their figures for waiting time targets in A&E over December 2017, which showed the number of patients who waited more than four hours from arrival to admittance, transfer or discharge is at a record high.

The letter said: "The facts remain that the NHS is severely and chronically underfunded.

"We have insufficient hospital and community beds and staff of all disciplines especially at the front door to cope with our ageing population’s health needs.

"As you will know a number of scientific publications have shown that crowded emergency departments are dangerous for patients. The longer that the patients stay in ED after their treatment has been completed, the greater is their morbidity and associated mortality.

"Recent media coverage has reported numerous anecdotal accounts of how appalling the situation in an increasing number of our emergency departments has become. These departments are not outliers. Many of the trusts we work in are in similar positions."

The letter also states experiences such as more than 50 patients at a time waiting for a hospital bed, and between 10-12 hours of waiting time from decision to the patient's admittance into a hospital bed.

Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust has said the cases of people dying in corridors is not one reported at any of their hospitals.

The consultants also gave their views on what needs to be done in order to help alleviate this situation, which included increasing social care funding to allow people to be cared for in the community where appropriate and reviewing the number of hospital beds available for acute care.

A spokesman from the Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust said: "Our emergency departments at Barnet and the Royal Free hospitals are extremely busy with consistently high attendances, among the most they have ever seen. Our staff are working extremely hard to ensure our patients receive the very best possible care.

"The trust is aware of the recent letter sent to the Prime Minister signed by A&E doctors. As the letter states, it does not represent the views or experience of the trust.

"We have tried and tested plans in place to cope with the pressures of the winter, including reducing our elective activity to ensure we have enough beds available."

The spokesman added the trust is asking people to play their part and use the services responsibly by knowing the right place to go at the right time, including using the NHS 111 number for urgent advice and visiting pharmacies for coughs, colds and other minor ailments.