Corridor Care

Status / emerging findings

• HSSIB investigation confirmed widespread use of inappropriate temporary care environments; Royal College of Nursing survey of 5,000 members reported 'harrowing experiences'
• Corridor care is a symptom of systemic overcrowding driven by lack of hospital beds and poor patient flow, not emergency department dysfunction — Dr Higginson estimates 16,000 patients die annually in association with long emergency department waits
• Staff report severe moral injury, shame and burnout; 97% of emergency department clinical leads surveyed felt the situation unsustainable, 30% of trainees show active burnout, experienced consultants retiring early
• Government's 45-minute corridor care definition risks enabling metric gaming — trusts could keep patients in ambulances rather than admit them to corridors to hit the target

Why it matters

Corridor care reflects a deeper crisis in hospital bed capacity and patient flow; it directly harms patient outcomes (16,000 estimated deaths annually) and is driving experienced clinical staff out of the NHS.

Tone arc

Evidence was substantively critical throughout. Witnesses presented a consistent picture of systemic failure and staff harm, with specific criticism of the Government's new metric as counterproductive rather than protective.

Key witnesses

Dr Ian Higginson, Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Rosie Benneyworth, Health Services Safety Investigations Body, Professor Nicola Ranger, Royal College of Nursing