Hundreds of patients are being forced to wait more than four hours to be seen by accident and emergency departments as the winter crisis begins.
It is the first time since April that emergency departments have struggled to hit their four-hour targets as admissions to A&E hit the highest level since data started being collected in November 2010.
According to NHS England figures, 3,678 patients across the country were forced to wait between four and 12 hours for treatment.
Five patients were not seen for more than 12 hours last week – the busiest week of the year with 415,000 people visiting A&E departments.
Waiting times were worst in major A&E wards where just 92.2% of patients were seen within four hours.
The NHS emergency care system is 'creaking at the seams' Dame Barbara Hakin, chief operating officer for NHS England, said: "Every year we see a dip in the figures for December, with week-on-week variations, which is why we fully assess how local systems are coping with winter pressures over a longer period.
"We knew this winter would be difficult but it is important to stress the NHS continues to deliver a good service, with 94.8% of people going to hospital for urgent care this week treated, admitted or discharged within four hours."
The figures will only intensify fears of a serious A&E crisis this winter after warnings that hospitals would be pushed to breaking point.
Last month Downing Street confirmed that Prime Minister David Cameron has been personally involved in overseeing the NHS response to the winter pressure on A&E departments.
Labour's Andy Burnham has called for a debate in Parliament It came as the head of NHS England, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, announced that scores of A&E departments would be downgraded in the biggest shake-up of NHS emergency services in 40 years.
Under his radical plan, a two-tier emergency health care system would exist with "emergency centres" assessing patients and starting treatment and "major emergency centres" providing specialist care such as for strokes or heart attacks.
Sir Bruce said that A&E was "creaking at the seams" and that while it was not broken it was struggling.
As the latest figures were released, Labour's shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: "Patients are waiting hours on end to be seen in England's A&E. And yet David Cameron and his ministers deny that A&E is in crisis.
"This dangerous complacency can't go on. That is why, in the absence of leadership from the Government, Labour has called a debate in Parliament on A&E services next Wednesday."
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