Corridor care is now ‘inevitable’ in NHS hospitals as A&Es have more than twice as many patients as permanent treatment bays, doctors warn.
New arrivals are having to wait up to 16 days before securing a bed on a ward due to delays discharging those who are medically fit to leave.
This has created an alarming backlog in emergency departments across the country, with most now dangerously overcrowded, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said.
It is sounding the alarm after conducting a snapshot survey of clinical leads working in 81 A&Es in England on a single day this month.
At that time, there were 7,400 patients present but just 2,970 permanent treatment spaces – a ratio of 2.5 to 1.
It means most patients were waiting on chairs or trolleys in corridors, waiting rooms or other ‘non-designated spaces’.
On that day – January 12 – the average longest wait for admission across the A&Es surveyed was more than 48 hours.
A mental health patient had been waiting for 16 days for an inpatient bed, while several others had been waiting seven or more days, the doctors said.
Dr Ian Higginson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said patients are being made to wait in A&E in ‘unacceptable conditions’ for hours or days
Only one in ten clinical leads (11 per cent) said all their patients were accommodated in a proper treatment area that day.
And almost all (93 per cent) believed patients were coming to harm because of conditions in their department.
The Royal College of Nursing has previously warned about the dangerous and undignified nature of corridor care, with staff left to discuss personal medical matters and conduct physical examinations surrounded by other patients.
The noise and bright lights can disrupt patients’ rest and call bells, emergency suction and oxygen tubes are not immediately next to trolleys.
Clinical leads who responded to the RCEM poll were also able to leave written testimonies to highlight the conditions where they worked.
One said: ‘Morale is at an all-time low with several staff off sick with stress/burnout.
‘Hard to quantify harm in terms of numbers, though harm is without doubt being done as crowding eats into efficiency and is resulting in inevitable delays in care.’
Another revealed: ‘In the past we would be in the corridor occasionally, but now it is every day.’
Previous analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine concluded there were more than 16,600 deaths associated with long A&E waits before admission to a ward in England in 2024.
And a third admitted they were ‘unable to keep patients safe’.
Responding to its findings, shared with the Daily Mail, the RCEM warned: ‘There are many more patients than there are designated spaces for them in emergency departments, making corridor care an inevitability.’
The excess demand for beds in A&E is not due to the presence of patients who could be treated elsewhere or quickly treated and discharged, the survey found, as there are not even enough for those awaiting admission to a ward.
Occupancy levels for these patients alone – the sickest arrivals – would still be 103.3 per cent.
Overall, one in six (16 per cent) patients present in these A&Es at the time the survey was conducted were subject to ‘corridor care’.
The most common reason clinical leads gave for overcrowding was their hospital having difficulties discharging patients who are medically fit to leave, largely because of trouble arranging social and community care. This was cited by 93 per cent.
This was followed by organisational delays affecting discharge (84 per cent), a lack of alternatives to admission for patients (74 per cent) and disruptions due to weekends or holidays (56 per cent).
High numbers of patients with less serious conditions or injuries was only cited by a third (36 per cent of respondents.
Over 1.8million patients had to wait 12 hours more to be admitted, transferred or discharged from A&E in England in 2024/25, against a target of 4 hours.
Previous analysis by the College suggested there were more than 16,600 deaths associated with long A&E waits before admission to a ward in England in 2024.
Dr Ian Higginson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: ‘These findings are further evidence that our EDs are struggling, to say the least.
‘Every day in EDs across the country, patients are stuck waiting in corridors in unacceptable conditions for hours or days.
‘These patients are waiting for a hospital bed – but we can’t get them into one.
‘Recent NHS figures show that bed occupancy this month has been over 94 per cent, which is well above the “safe” level of 85 per cent.
‘Thousands of these beds on a given day are occupied by people who are medical fit to leave, but who are unable to be discharged, typically because of a lack of social care provision.
‘This issue, known as delayed discharge, is one of the main reasons hospitals are full.
‘The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and NHS England leaders have been engaging with us on the issue of so-called “corridor care”, and what is needed to fix overcrowding in EDs.
‘We are glad this has become a political priority, and we now need a clear long-term plan for fixing Urgent and Emergency Care or things will not get better.’
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘No one should receive care in a corridor – the situation we inherited is unacceptable and undignified, and we are determined to end it.
‘We recognise staff are under immense pressure and thank them for their dedication in keeping patients safe.
‘We have taken immediate action, investing £450 million to expand urgent and emergency care services, building 40 new same day emergency care centres and 15 mental health crisis centres and preparing for winter earlier than ever before.
‘As a result, patients are being seen more quickly in A&Es.
‘NHS England is also working closely with trusts to reduce discharge delays, alongside social care colleagues.
‘We will soon be publishing data on corridor care, as sunlight is the best disinfectant.’