Corridor care should be eradicated, not just mitigated, says RCN

The RCN is urging the Westminster government and NHS leaders to eradicate corridor care, not just mitigate its impacts, as the updated NHS England (NHSE) guidance on the issue has been published.

The guidance sets out how hospitals should manage patients treated in non-clinical spaces. RCN Chief Nursing Officer Lynn Woolsey said the update highlights the severity of the crisis facing health services.

“While providing corridor care guidance to NHS leaders and clinicians is important, it equally shows just how far the situation has deteriorated for patients and staff,” she said. “Nursing staff sounded the alarm 18 months ago on the issue of corridor care, yet it’s deeply distressing and demoralising to see it ultimately accepted as an inevitability into next year and beyond. Patients and nursing staff deserve better.”

We’re calling for a fully funded plan to eradicate corridor care altogether, which must include investment in hospital beds, nursing staff across acute and community settings, and urgent action to boost social care capacity to speed up patient discharge.

The RCN is referenced in the NHSE guidance, which points to our 2024 report on corridor care. Key changes in the updated guidance include stronger language around corridor care being unacceptable and the need for eradication and removal of the term "temporary escalation space", with focus on corridor care as inclusive of any non-designated clinical space.

Our demands that corridor care data reporting should include all hospital wards, not just emergency departments, have been reflected in the new guidance. We're clear that the data on just how prevalent the practice is must be published as a priority.

However, the guidance also raises concerns about the definition of what constitutes safe care. “Just because a space has been included in winter planning doesn’t mean it’s clinically safe,” Lynn said.

The new guidance also says certain patient groups shouldn't have to endure corridor care, but we're warning again that the practice has already been normalised across NHS services. It compromises not only patient safety, but staff wellbeing too.

“To nursing staff, guidance on excluding certain groups from the practice of corridor care will feel detached from the reality of working under intolerable pressures. It is also unambitious; as health care professionals, nursing staff consider corridor care unacceptable for everyone.”

Last week, nursing staff warned that patients face a “devastating” winter as our analysis revealed a rise in 12-hour waits for hospital admissions. We said ministers have acted with “insufficient urgency” since last winter, failing to invest in hospital and community capacity or boost staffing levels.

In response, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he wanted to work with the RCN to eradicate corridor care by the end of this parliament, but we’re demanding much more urgency.

“Patients don’t have years to wait; corridor care should’ve already been eradicated, and every day it still exists is a policy failure with devastating human consequences,” Lynn said.

If corridor care is happening at your workplace, it’s important to raise concerns. Find out more in our raising concerns toolkit. You can also find out about further support available from the RCN on our website.