A&E ‘corridor care’ now normal at NHS hospitals in England, senior doctor says

A senior doctor in emergency medicine has said “almost every hospital is treating patients in corridors and car parks” after a hospital posted adverts calling for nurses to take on 12-hour “corridor care” shifts.

Responding to “very significant pressure” in its A&E department, Whittington hospital in north London posted bank shifts available for A&E nurses, which said “corridor care” in the notes.

Sharing a screenshot of the advert on X, Ian Higginson, a consultant in emergency medicine and the vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “Corridor nurses and care in corridors utterly normalised [this is an advert for a corridor nurse but sadly it’s nothing new].”

He also said sustained pressure on A&E departments would continue. “Don’t be fooled as critical incidents stood down: they’ll be back,” he said. “Almost every hospital is treating patients in corridors and car parks.”

MPs wrote to the health secretary, Wes Streeting, last week asking for his action plan to help 14 hospitals declaring critical incidents due to “exceptionally high” demand. The Gloucestershire acute trust said on Wednesday that it was preparing to cancel operations, urgently discharge 140 patients and restrict admissions to help it cope with “extreme winter pressures”.

Hospitals in Northamptonshire, Cornwall, Liverpool, Hampshire, Birmingham, Plymouth and Wirral have all declared critical incidents. South Warwickshire University NHS foundation trust said on Wednesday that visits to A&E in the past week had “been consistently some of the highest” ever experienced.

The winter crisis this year appears to have been driven by flu cases, as well as RSV and Covid. Some hospitals have restricted visitor numbers, while others are encouraging people to wear surgical masks to limit the spread of viruses.

Whittington Health NHS trust said it was experiencing “very significant pressure” in its urgent and emergency care. “In these circumstances we may have to provide care in corridors as an absolute last resort,” a spokesperson said, adding that the trust was employing temporary staff “to ensure that care can be delivered as safely and compassionately as possible to patients”.

NHS England figures show that 35.4% of ambulance patients at Whittington hospital waited more than 30 minutes to be handed to A&E teams last week.

The president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Adrian Boyle, called corridor care “degrading, dehumanising and dangerous” and called on Streeting to compel NHS England to publish data about how often patients were receiving such treatment. “Let me be clear, it is not possible to provide truly safe patient care in environments such as corridors and cupboards,” he said.

“So-called ‘corridor care’ occurs when emergency departments are overcrowded. This crowding leads to extended A&E stays that we know contribute to avoidable deaths, a concept the prime minister has said should be ‘always chilling’.”

An NHS England spokesperson said hospitals had been hit by record levels of demand caused by flu admissions and thousands of beds being taken up by patients ready for discharge. “The NHS is facing unprecedented demand for services but we remain clear that caring for patients in temporary spaces is not acceptable and should never be considered as standard,” they said.