NHS corridor care is ‘torture’ leading to patient deaths and staff nightmares

Corridor care is “a type of torture” that is leading to patients dying and causing NHS staff to have nightmares, the UK’s nurses union has warned.

In one case, an elderly patient choked to death in a corridor, unseen by staff, according to a new dossier of evidence highlighting the problem published by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

Demand for care is so intense that hospitals are having to turn dining rooms, staff kitchens and rooms for viewing deceased people into overspill care areas, the RCN reveals.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has pledged to end the use of corridor care in England by 2029, if not sooner. However, NHS staff groups are sceptical that he can fulfil that promise, given that many hospitals are overloaded so often, and not just during the winter.

The RCN’s dossier is based on testimony from 436 nurses around the UK between 2 and 9 January. One, in the south of England, was “having nightmares” after a patient died in a departure lounge that had been turned into a makeshift ward.

Another, in Yorkshire, relayed how a terminally ill patient had spent a week in an overflow area before being moved to a side room, where they died. “I won’t ever forget that,” the nurse said. A third, in the north-west of England, said it had become “routine” for 26 patients to be stuck in a corridor awaiting a bed, even though their hospital said no more than six should be left there.

Prof Nicola Ranger, the RCN’s general secretary, said: “This testimony from nursing staff reveals once again the devastating human consequences of corridor care, with patients forced to endure conditions which have no place in our NHS.”

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Source: The Guardian, 15 January 2026

Further reading on the hub:

In a series of blogs on the hub, we have been highlighting some of the key patient safety issues surrounding corridor care.