Overview
- The Royal College of Nursing surveyed 436 nurses this month who reported ongoing treatment in corridors and other unsuitable areas, including cases of a patient left in a chair for four days and another who died after choking unseen.
- Nurses described care delivered in freezing corridors as well as dining rooms, staff kitchens, offices, departure and discharge lounges, and even deceased viewing rooms.
- Frontline staff reported serious harms to safety and dignity and a heavy toll on morale, citing infections, incontinence, anxiety, and distress linked to prolonged waits in non-clinical spaces.
- YouGov polling found 36% of people who used NHS services in the past six months witnessed care in a corridor or similar setting, and 69% judged the promise to end the practice by the end of this parliament as too slow.
- The Department of Health and Social Care reiterated that no one should receive corridor care and highlighted £450m for urgent and emergency care, 40 same‑day emergency care centers, and 15 mental health crisis centers, while NHS leaders pointed to entrenched capacity and discharge problems.