Patients being treated in hospital corridors is a sign of an NHS under extreme pressure. For months, clinicians, patients and campaigners have been raising the alarm about corridor care. The government has now announced new measures aimed at addressing the problem. While these steps mark progress, serious questions remain about whether the NHS has the staff, beds and funding needed to make corridor care a thing of the past.
Another new plan with a big promise
The government and NHS England have now published new plans aimed at “virtually eliminating” corridor care in the NHS. The announcement follows months of mounting concern from clinicians, patients and campaigners about the growing number of people being treated in hospital corridors because of severe capacity pressures.
For many NHS staff and patients, the publication of a formal plan is an important step forward. For too long, corridor care has been treated as an unfortunate but unavoidable feature of an overstretched health service. Acknowledging the problem publicly, and committing to address it, matters.
At EveryDoctor, we also know this progress did not happen in a vacuum. Over recent months, our supporters have written over 20,000 letters to ministers calling for urgent action, while clinicians across the country have spoken out about the conditions they are witnessing in emergency departments and hospital wards, by sharing their first hand experiences with us. Patients and their relatives have also shared their distressing stories. We have used this testimony to increase public awareness of what is happening, and we are grateful to everyone who has helped shine a light on this issue.
Campaigners and healthcare professionals have been asking the government to answer four simple questions about corridor care:
1. how it will be stopped – now
2. who is accountable for patients being left in waiting in corridors
3. when data on the prevalence of corridor care will be released, and
4. confirmation that corridor care will not be treated as a normal part of NHS planning.
The latest announcements move the conversation forward on two of these points.
First, NHS England has committed to publishing corridor care data. Transparent reporting is essential if the scale of the problem is to be understood and addressed. Without reliable data, it is far too easy for corridor care to remain hidden.
Second, the government has indicated who will be responsible for tackling the issue – local Trusts. Establishing accountability matters. Patients and staff deserve to know who is responsible for ensuring safe standards of care are maintained.
These steps are welcome. They reflect the growing recognition that corridor care is not acceptable and cannot simply be normalised.
However, significant concerns remain.
The new plans place a strong emphasis on introducing targets and metrics, including expectations around patient flow and waiting times. While measurement can be helpful, targets alone do not solve capacity problems.
If hospitals do not have enough staff, beds, or funding to meet these expectations, imposing new time limits risks simply shifting blame onto frontline teams who are already working under extraordinary pressure.
For example, expecting patients to be moved within a fixed timeframe, such as the proposed 45-minute limit in emergency departments, does not create additional ward beds or suitably qualified, clinical staff. Without addressing the underlying shortages, such targets risk becoming performance management tools rather than genuine solutions.
No apparent joined-up thinking
There are also wider questions about how corridor care connects to pressures across the health and social care system. Emergency departments are often overwhelmed because hospital beds are full, which in turn is frequently linked to delays in discharging patients who cannot access appropriate community or social care support. There is no apparent joined-up thinking or plan.
In other words, corridor care is not a problem that can be solved within emergency departments alone. It reflects a system under strain across multiple parts of health and social care. This cannot wait for a 10 year plan to be implemented.
Without coordinated action on workforce shortages, hospital capacity and social care provision, the risk is that corridor care will continue to appear, even if the language used to describe it changes.
This is why many clinicians remain concerned that the current plans focus heavily on measurement and reporting but say less about the resources needed to ensure those standards can realistically be met.
Despite these concerns, the fact that corridor care is now being openly discussed at national level is itself significant. Only a short time ago, many staff felt unable to speak publicly about the situation they were witnessing.
Change rarely happens all at once. It is usually the result of sustained pressure from many different directions; clinicians speaking out, patients sharing their experiences, journalists reporting on the issue, and supporters of campaigning organisations like ours raising their voices with policymakers.
Everyone who has taken action on corridor care should feel proud of helping push this issue onto the national agenda.
But the work is not finished.
Publishing data and setting expectations are only the first steps. Ending corridor care will require sustained investment in staff, beds and services across the health and care system and a willingness to address the deeper pressures that have led to patients being treated in hospital corridors in the first place.
EveryDoctor will continue to monitor the government’s plans closely and push for the resources and system changes needed to ensure that patients receive care in safe and dignified conditions.
Dr Julia Patterson, CEO of EveryDoctor says:
“It is encouraging that the government has now recognised corridor care as a serious issue and committed to publishing data and establishing accountability. That progress reflects the pressure applied by NHS staff, patients, campaigners and our supporters who have raised their voices on this issue.
But targets alone will not end corridor care. If ministers are serious about eliminating it, they must ensure hospitals have the staff, beds and funding needed to provide safe and dignified care. Without those resources, new metrics risk measuring a problem rather than solving it.”
