The number soared to 347,707 out of little over 5.9million last year, equalling almost 1,000 per day.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine recently warned up to 500 people a week are dying as a result of ambulance and treatment delays.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey will today seek to set out his NHS rescue plan.
Sir Ed’s plan includes recruiting 8,000 more GPs, giving pharmacists more powers to prescribe medicines and boosting funding to get eligible patients out of hospital and into social care.
“The failure of the Conservative Government to grip this crisis is simply unforgivable.
“Instead they have shamefully allowed the situation to go from bad to worse through years of neglect and failure.
“Rishi Sunak is in total denial about the scale of the problem facing our hospitals, social care and GP services.”
“That must start with recruiting more GPs, empowering our pharmacists and helping people to leave hospital and into social care.”
Mr Sunak, who recently revealed he is registered with an NHS GP but has used “independent healthcare in the past”, reaffirmed his commitment to bringing down NHS waiting times shortly after the Christmas break.
“You should know we’re taking urgent action: Increasing bed capacity by 7,000 more hospital beds and more people cared for at home.
“Providing new funding to discharge people into social care and the community, freeing up beds.”
