Wes Streeting declares Labour will ‘end corridor care’ in NHS hospitals by 2029
Health Secretary Wes Streeting says Labour will end NHS corridor care after nurses told of being powerless as patients spent hours slowly dying on trolleys in busy A&Es
Wes Streeting has pledged to end corridor care in NHS hospitals by the next general election “if not sooner”.
The Government promise from the Health Secretary comes after the Royal College of Nursing warned the NHS is facing a “corridor care crisis” this Christmas. It published analysis revealing a 90-fold increase in demand for hospital beds in England in the last six years. The nurses’ union says a collapse in community care over the period has meant much more people turning up in hospital and vying for a similar number of hospital beds.
The RCN said Labour had started to boost community health services in England but not fast enough to keep up with escalating demand after a decade-long NHS funding squeeze under the Tories.
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Wes Streeting has pledged to end corridor care in hospitals in England by 2029, telling LBC Radio it is not acceptable that people are being treated on trolleys in hospital corridors.
Asked when he would “consign corridor care to history where it belongs”, Mr Streeting replied: “Well, I want to do that over the course of this Parliament. That’s where I want to be. If I can get it done sooner, I will. We can’t have people being treated on trolleys in corridors.
“I’ve seen some reports over the last year or so of things like Costa Coffee outlets and the reception area being used to hold patients, and I do not think that’s acceptable.”
The Mirror revealed how corridor care was quietly normalised by NHS England from 2022 to tackle growing ambulance response time delays.
This week an RCN report cited NHS data showing that during the build up to winter in 2019 the number of people waiting more than 12 hours for a bed in A&E after a decision to admit stood at 1,281. In the same July to September period in 2025 some 116,141 patients endured such trolley waits – a staggering 90-fold increase. During this period overnight hospital bed capacity in England increased just 2%, or by just 2,192 beds.
Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN General Secretary, said: “Nursing staff and patients alike endured a horrendous winter last year, with corridor care rife across every service. Worryingly, after no respite in the summer, the signs point to the coming colder months being devastating and more dangerous for patients.”
Last year the RCN published a 460-page report showing care in such inappropriate spaces was the worst it had ever been. Testimony from 5,000 nurses laid bare the consequences of a decade of NHS under-funding which nurses insisted is costing lives.
The Mirror attended a briefing in central London where tearful nurses told of being powerless as patients spend hours slowly dying on a trolley in a busy corridor and finding a dead patient under a pile of coats.
Demoralised medics reported caring for as many as 40 patients in a single corridor, unable to access oxygen, cardiac monitors, and vital suction equipment to clear blocked airways.
An RCN survey told of pregnant women miscarrying in corridors, while other nurses say they cannot access patients to give proper CPR when they have heart attacks. RCN boss Nicola Ranger told the Mirror she quit her previous job as one of the country’s top NHS nurse leaders over the introduction of corridor care.
Professor Ranger worked her way up from hospital cleaner to become chief nurse at some of the biggest NHS trusts before leaving to take over the world ’s biggest nursing union. She told the Mirror she ended her glittering NHS career running frontline nursing early after realising she would have been forced to oversee the change to corridor care that would “take years to recover from”.
A decade-long NHS funding squeeze under the Tories saw NHS waits surge from 2015 onwards. The Covid pandemic then saw 999 delays increase to dangerous levels as ambulances queued outside full A&Es waiting to offload patients.
Caring for patients on trolleys in “temporary escalation spaces” such as corridors and store cupboards had previously been an emergency measure, lasting maybe 24, 48 or 72 hours. That was before NHS England made the difficult decision in 2022 to normalise such escalation spaces to get ambulances back on the road.
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Speaking to the Mirror last year, Prof Ranger explained: “When you’ve got an escalation area with temporary beds open for two years that is not temporary, that is unfunded, understaffed hospitals and it is unethical to have patients in these spaces.”
Professor Ranger went on to run the nursing and midwifery units at some of the largest NHS trusts as a troubleshooter, sent to hospitals placed into Special Measures by the regulator. The annual rate of NHS funding rises – to keep pace with the ageing population – slowed from almost 6% under New Labour to only 2% under the Conservatives, according to an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). The annual rise average since the NHS was founded is around 4% which is still low by European standards.
A spokesperson for the RCN said: “We’re ready to work with the secretary of state and provide our expertise to help eradicate corridor care, but those discussions cannot wait any longer. They need to start now, with a goal of ending this unacceptable practice urgently.
“We also need to see government finally come good on its promise to publish full data on how prevalent corridor care is in hospitals and exactly where it is taking place, including emergency departments and beyond. Full transparency is required to tackle this crisis.”
