Minister and Royal Colleges questioned on ‘systemic’ issue of corridor care
Health Minister Karin Smyth and leaders of the Royal Colleges of Nursing and Emergency Medicine will be questioned by MPs on the growing problem of patients being treated in hospital corridors and temporary spaces.
Meeting details
It comes as NHS England’s Sarah-Jane Marsh, who is giving evidence in this session, wrote to hospital leaders on 4 March outlining “national-level actions” to tackle the problem and details of an agreed definition of corridor care.
The term corridor care can refer to patients being treated on trolleys and chairs outside of wards, or in areas not designated as clinical spaces. Despite a lack of official data on the scale of corridor care there is widespread recognition that it has rapidly escalated into a systemic issue. Survey data in 2025 indicates almost one in five patients in emergency departments were being cared for in this way.
In January, the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB), whose Interim Chief Executive is also giving evidence, published a report highlighting risks involved in corridor care. These included increased risks of infection, or of delirium or falls among elderly patients, poor access to equipment such as oxygen cylinders, difficulties with monitoring patients’ conditions and impacts on their mental health.
In this session, the cross-party Committee will question witnesses on what actions should be taken to reduce corridor care and what pressures are causing it to become more commonplace in acute settings.
MPs will also explore what steps could be taken by hospital leaders to manage corridor care as safely and effectively as possible to reduce risks.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has committed to ending corridor care by the end of the Parliament, thought to be in 2029. In June 2025 NHS England wrote to NHS trusts with new targets for improving ‘patient flows’ and discharge times. These measures will also be scrutinised.