NHS England: Principles for providing patient care in corridors (11 December 2025)

Summary

The term ‘corridor care’ is inclusive of any non-designated clinical space. NHS England considers the delivery of corridor care in departments or wards experiencing patient crowding to be unacceptable and should never be considered standard. Patients should only be placed in corridors in extremis and for the shortest possible duration, to ensure the time patients are cared for in this environment is kept to a minimum. These principles have been developed to support point-of-care staff in delivering the safest and highest quality care possible when corridor care has been deemed unavoidable.