London, December 10, 2025
A new comprehensive study reveals that nearly one in five patients in UK emergency departments are now regularly treated in corridors and other non-clinical overflow areas, contravening NHS England guidance and raising major concerns about patient safety and dignity amid ongoing hospital capacity crises.
Scale and Prevalence of Corridor Care
Recent findings confirm that corridor care has become a pervasive and normalized practice across nearly all UK emergency departments (EDs). Due to persistent shortages in staffed hospital beds and bottlenecks in patient admission pathways, almost 20% of ED patients are managed in inappropriate spaces such as corridors, waiting rooms, and other makeshift areas rather than dedicated clinical bays.
Contravention of NHS Guidance and Safety Concerns
This widespread corridor care directly defies NHS England’s explicit policies which categorize treating patients in these environments as unacceptable, particularly for vulnerable groups including children and mental health patients. Patients frequently experience a loss of privacy and dignity, with many elderly or frail individuals receiving care in locations lacking essential medical equipment or appropriate monitoring facilities. Such conditions severely compromise patient safety and increase risks of neglect and adverse outcomes.
Systemic Causes and Impact
Experts identify corridor care as symptomatic of wider systemic pressures. Critical shortages in inpatient bed capacity compound with delays in patient discharges, often related to inadequate community and social care support, causing admitted patients to remain in EDs for prolonged durations. This bottleneck disrupts emergency care flow and escalates risks within hospital environments struggling to manage demand.
Medical Community Response
The Royal College of Physicians has acknowledged corridor care as an entrenched reality within NHS hospitals while underscoring that it remains an unsafe, undesirable condition. Their updated guidance calls for the professional community to be supported in providing the best feasible care under these challenging circumstances, pending urgent systemic remedies. This recognition highlights the tension between current operational limitations and established care standards.
Calls for Policy Reform
Healthcare leaders and researchers are urging policymakers to address the root causes of corridor care beyond emergency departments. Key recommended actions include increasing staffed inpatient bed availability and resolving discharge delays through strengthened community care frameworks. Stakeholders warn that failure to act will entrench corridor care as a normalized, yet deeply flawed standard of emergency healthcare delivery in the UK.
The persistence of corridor care vividly illustrates the strain on Britain’s emergency care system, reflecting significant challenges that transcend hospitals alone and implicate the broader health and social care infrastructure. Without decisive policy interventions to enhance capacity and patient flow, the safety, dignity, and quality of emergency care patients receive will remain under threat.