Corridor care ‘new normal’ in England for one in five NHS inpatients

Corridor care has become the new normal in England, experts have said, as a national survey found that one in five patients admitted to hospital had to wait in such settings.

The report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) also found that nearly 10% of patients waited more than 24 hours to be admitted to hospital and 17.5% waited 12 to 24 hours. More than half of all patients waited more than six hours.

Nearly half waited in a treatment bay, but 18% had to wait in a corridor, 31% in a waiting room and 1%, or 361 patients, said they had to wait in a storage room or cupboard in November last year.

The CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, Dr Toli Onon, said trolley waits were regrettable and must not become the norm. She said it was great to see improvements since but that reports of lengthy waits and patients whose health had deteriorated was a real concern.

“Patients should receive safe and effective care in an environment that allows for their privacy and dignity to be protected,” she said. “Corridor care must not become normalised – however, these survey results demonstrate that in some cases the short-term use of temporary escalation spaces to relieve pressure on the ambulance sector is a regrettable reality.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 9 September 2025

Further reading on the hub:

• Corridor care and patient safety
• A silent safety scandal: A nurse’s first-hand account of a corridor nursing shift
• My experience of the 'Wait 45' policy
• How corridor care in the NHS is affecting safety culture: A blog by Claire Cox