Act to end ‘corridor care’. Don’t “normalise” it. 

West Cornwall MP, Andrew George, is urging health ministers to end the practice of ‘corridor care’, not to let it become normalised. He made his remarks as Liberal Democrats publish analysis which reveals there were a record 518,000 “trolley waits” of 12 hours or more last year in Emergency Departments (A&Es). 

It follows a media story about a hospital recently advertising for “corridor care” nurses to care for patients waiting for a bed. 

Andrew’s Liberal Democrat colleague and Health Spokesperson, Helen Morgan, described the situation as scandalous and has called on the Health Secretary Wes Streeting to announce an emergency plan to increase the number of hospital beds and end corridor care. 

Andrew has highlighted the seriousness of the issue before. A problem which has become progressively worse under the previous government and has left the new Labour government with the legacy of a dysfunctional system.  

Long waits at A&E are extremely dangerous and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimates that in 2023 14,000 deaths were associated with long waits in A&E. ‘Corridor care’ is dangerous for patients, as these locations aren’t designed for it, don’t have oxygen, power and other vital services, nor curtains to protect patient privacy and dignity.  

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the government to urgently increase the number of hospital beds to bring bed occupancy levels down to the safe level of 85%. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine says that it currently stands at 93%. 

Andrew called on Health Secretary Wes Streeting to address the bed crisis in Emergency Departments during his Health Committee session just before Christmas. See clip here. 

Liberal Democrat MP and Health and Social Care Select Committee member, Andrew George, said: 

“I appreciate that Labour inherited an NHS in its worst crisis in history, but ministers must work to avoid normalising corridor care. There were also two damning reports from the Cornwall Coroner sent to previous Conservative Health Secretaries which were highly critical of management of the Emergency services, which he said contributed to the otherwise avoidable death of patients at Treliske.  

“We are seeing shocking and dangerous long waits in hospital corridors, putting patient lives at risk and leaving staff struggling to cope. It doesn’t help when some leading managers of our service argue that Cornwall’s hospitals are “over-bedded”.  

“I was disappointed with the Health Secretary’s response to me only a few weeks ago. I hope he’s reflected further and will now produce an emergency plan to protect patients from this ongoing disaster.  

“It must include an urgent expansion of the number of hospital beds to get back to safe levels and a pandemic-style emergency recruitment campaign to bring staff out of retirement and back into the workforce.” 

The research by the Liberal Democrats looks at how many patients waited over 12 hours in A&E after a decision to admit them to hospital, commonly known as trolley waits. It shows a record 518,000 patients waited 12 hours or more to be admitted to hospital from A&E in 2024, a record high and a 25% rise on the previous year. Shockingly, the number of patients waiting 12 hours or more to be admitted to hospital from A&E last year was up 23-fold from 8,272 in 2019.