The RCN has condemned the normalisation of corridor care after a report from the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) found the practice happening all year round. The HSSIB is the patient safety investigation body for England. 

The investigation came on the back of our 2025 corridor care report which set out testimonies from our members about their experiences of corridor care and the threat this poses to patient safety. 

The HSSIB report also found that despite the clear risk to patients' safety, dignity and privacy, there’s no agreed definition of corridor care in the NHS, nor any standardised data collection or public reporting, which would allow ministers and service leaders to determine the harm experienced by patients.  

Over the past year, the RCN and others have repeatedly called for the government to deliver on its commitment to publish data on corridor care in England. 

The moral injury suffered by nursing staff forced to care for patients in unsafe conditions is also highlighted.  

RCN Chief Nursing Officer Lynn Woolsey said: “A national safety investigator finding that corridor care is no longer an exception but entirely normalised and all year round is a damning indictment. It means every day vulnerable people are being treated in unsafe and undignified conditions.  

“What’s just as shocking, is 18 months after nursing staff declared a national emergency over corridor care, ministers and service leaders are still unable to determine the harm being done to patients due to a lack of national data collection and reporting.

“It's difficult to overstate the catastrophic state of the health service if patients’ expectations are so low they almost expect being left on trolleys in corridors with too few staff to care for them. This is the clearest sign of the flawed thinking within a system that's resigned to managed decline. The reality is there's no safe level of corridor care, or level of staffing that can make it so."

Health Secretary Wes Streeting pledged to eradicate corridor care by the end of this parliament, but this report shows patients and staff do not have years to wait. We’ve been clear that data on just how prevalent the practice is must be published as a priority. 

Lynn added: “We need government to stop dragging their feet and come good on the promise to publish national-level data on corridor care. That’s how we know how truly widespread it is and the potential harm being done.

“To eradicate this unacceptable practice for good, we need real investment in beds, the nursing workforce in hospitals and the community, and crucially, long-overdue action to boost capacity in social care to improve discharge. Every day that corridor care continues is a policy failure with devastating human consequences.” 

The HSSIB report shows that trusts are making corridor care adaptations more permanent, with some trusts now reportedly deploying staff directly onto corridors, and installing call bells and plug sockets in corridors.  

If corridor care is happening at your workplace, it’s important to raise your concerns. Find out more in our raising concerns toolkit and get information on RCN support available from member support services.