Adrian A. Boyle

Adrian Boyle is a British consultant and emergency physician at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, England. In October 2022, he succeeded Katherine Henderson as the President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.

Education Adrian Boyle qualified as a doctor from the University of Southampton and undertook house jobs in Southampton and Portsmouth. The registrar for his Portsmouth house job was former Royal College President Clifford Mann. He also undertook medical training in Tygerberg and holds a masters in epidemiology and biostatistics, as well as a Doctorate on domestic violence, both from the University of Cambridge.

Research and career Prior to becoming president, Dr Boyle was previously Vice President of Policy. As Vice President, Boyle highlighted how more than a thousand patients a day, spent at least 12 hours waiting in A&E, during 2021 and called for action and investment in social care. Additionally, Dr Boyle was a key author of the report produced by RCEM in November 2021, which demonstrated that overcrowding and extended stays had seen over 4,500 excess deaths from 2020 to 2021.

As President, Boyle has spoken about the significant risks that excessive waiting times posed to elderly patients, describing hospitals as "lobster traps". He has also highlighted how Ambulances were becoming "wards on wheels" and described the hospital system as 'collapsing'. In December 2022, he spoke about the anxieties within the healthcare sector, surrounding the nurses' and ambulance strikes, and criticised NHS bosses' recommendation for hospitals to free up more beds.

In the same month Dr Boyle issued a statement alongside four other medical royal colleges calling for the UK government to increase and prioritise investment in ambulance services, mental health, primary care and social care.

In January 2023, Dr Boyle told the Health Select Committee that December 2022 had been the NHS' worst-ever December.

In July 2023, Dr Boyle criticised the NHS England's urgent and emergency care winter plan, writing in the Independent that it will do little to resolve the current situation.

In September of the same year, Boyle branded Emergency Department waiting times as a 'matter of national shame'.

In April, 2024, Boyle warned that excessively long waits continued to 'put patients at risk of serious harm'.

Selected publications