The recent revelation that nearly 3,000 patients a day are receiving care in NHS corridors or makeshift treatment areas in England is alarming. Official data has quantified what many families have been reporting for some time: a system under strain, where patients are being treated in inappropriate settings, from hospital corridors to side-rooms and even car parks.

What is corridor care?

The NHS defines “corridor care” as a situation where a patient spends more than 45 minutes receiving treatment in a location that is not a designated clinical area, such as an A&E bay or a hospital ward.

While the data suggests this affects approximately 3-4% of patients arriving via A&E daily, the impact on those individuals is profound. We are not just talking about a delay in treatment; we are talking about care delivered in an environment that lacks privacy, dignity, and the necessary clinical equipment to monitor a patient safely.

Patients are often elderly or vulnerable, left in high-traffic areas, unable to access basic facilities or ensure their monitoring is consistent.

The patient safety implications of corridor care

The primary concern, naturally, is a patient’s safety and well-being. When a patient is placed in a corridor, they are often removed from the direct line of sight and observations of nursing staff.

The risks associated with this are clear:

• Delayed recognition of deterioration: in a properly equipped clinical area, monitoring equipment is accessible and alerts are heard immediately. In a corridor, a patient’s condition may deteriorate without staff noticing, leading to delayed intervention.

• Lack of privacy and dignity: every patient deserves to be treated with compassion and respect. Delivering sensitive news, performing examinations, or even assisting with personal care in a public corridor is an indignity that no patient should have to endure.

• Infection control: corridors are high-traffic areas. Placing vulnerable, immunocompromised, or sick patients in these spaces increases the risk of cross-infection, complicating their recovery.

• Staff burnout: the detrimental effect is not just to the patient. Those working in NHS (who no doubt frequently go above and beyond their contacted hours and duties) also suffer. The BBC reports a nurse commenting “her emergency department felt like a war zone". Nurses and doctors are working in near-impossible conditions. When a clinical environment becomes akin to a "war zone," the pressure on staff to provide safe care increases, which inevitably can lead to poor morale and sometimes mistakes.

Putting an end to corridor care

The government has pledged to eradicate the practice of corridor care by 2029. This is an ambitious goal, but publishing this data is a positive first step. It is a welcome transparent step, given you can’t fix a problem you refuse to acknowledge.

However, transparency is not a cure. Real change requires robust investment, improved staffing levels, and a commitment to ensuring that when a patient walks through the doors of a hospital, they are guaranteed a safe, dignified space in which to receive the treatment they desperately need.

As clinical negligence solicitors, our role is to support those who have suffered because the medical system has failed them. However, our ultimate hope, as advocates for patient safety, is that these incidents become increasingly rare, eventually moving to headlines of the past.