Overview
- Investigators visited 13 hospitals between August and December 2025 and found regular use of corridors, waiting rooms and other makeshift areas with no significant seasonal variation.
- The report details safety risks including missed deterioration, delayed emergency responses, infection exposure and lack of piped oxygen, with accounts of patients collapsing where no emergency buzzer was available.
- Some trusts have installed call bells, plug sockets and communication systems in corridors after senior staff said they could not avoid using these spaces.
- Hospitals reported persistent drivers such as delayed discharges, ambulance handover pressures and shortages in social and community care capacity.
- The Department of Health and Social Care called corridor care unacceptable and cited measures including improved data work, £450 million for urgent and emergency care expansion, 500 ambulances, 40 mental health crisis centers and expanded vaccination efforts.