APPG on Emergency Care: Corridor care (November 2025)

Summary

Almost one in five patients in Emergency Departments were being cared for in trolleys or chairs in corridors in England this summer, with so-called ‘corridor care’ leaving people feeling ‘forgotten and vulnerable’.  

That’s among the key findings contained in a major report on the state of corridor care in A&Es by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Emergency Care. 

The research, compiled by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) which acts as secretariat for the APPG, reveals what patients are experiencing when they seek urgent or emergency care in ED, the harm they are exposed to, and what needs to be done to address this crisis.  

Content

So-called ‘corridor care’ refers to the practice of providing patient care in clinically inappropriate areas such as corridors, waiting rooms or other temporary spaces which are not designed or equipped to treat patients in.  

Corridor care is a visible symptom of the pressures facing the entire system. These pressures include shortages of staffed hospital beds and delays in discharging patients due to gaps in community and social care provision. This creates a bottleneck in hospitals, with those requiring admission remaining in Emergency Departments for extended periods and care being delivered wherever space can be found. 

Between 30 July – 13 August 2025, RCEM polled Clinical leads – who oversee A&Es – to capture a snapshot of the prevalence of corridor care and the standard of care patients were receiving. 

In total, representatives from 58 Type 1 Emergency Departments across England responded. They revealed: 

• Across the EDs in the sample, 19% of patients were being treated on trolleys or chairs in the corridor. That’s almost one in five attendances who were being cared for in an inappropriate setting, during a summer month, when there has historically been respite. 
• 34.5% of respondents had patients being cared for in ambulances outside their department 
• Over three quarters of respondents (78%) felt patients were coming into harm in their department due to the quality of care that can be delivered under current conditions

Related reading on the hub:

• The crisis of corridor care in the NHS: patient safety concerns and incident reporting
• How corridor care in the NHS is affecting safety culture: A blog by Claire Cox
• Corridor care: are the health and safety risks being addressed?
• A nurse's response to the NHSE guidance on their principles for providing safe and good quality care in temporary escalation space
• A silent safety scandal: A nurse’s first-hand account of a corridor nursing shift