Corridor care is when patients spend more than 45 minutes waiting for an appropriate place for their care with ministers pledging to eradicate the practice by 2029
Nearly 3,000 patients a day had to be cared for in hospital corridors or make-shift treatment areas in England last month, statistics revealed.
It is the first time the data has been published, and reveals the scale of the challenge facing the NHS in tackling what ministers say is “unsafe” and “”unacceptable”. Corridor care is when patients spend more than 45 minutes waiting for an appropriate place for their care and ministers have pledged to eradicate the practice by 2029.
In A&E, it can be in corridors and side-rooms and make-shift treatment areas where there is not the proper equipment to keep them safe and maintain dignity. On the wards, it is when patients have been waiting for a bed for 45 minutes or more.
The figures show during May there were 2,241 patients a day, on average, who experienced corridor care, while on wards there were 669. NHS analysis found that 20 trusts accounted for more than half of the cases of corridor care in A&E, while 20 trusts also accounted for more than two thirds elsewhere in hospitals.
Health Secretary James Murray said: “Corridor care is unacceptable, undignified and has no place in our NHS. That is why, for the first time, we are publishing this data to shine a spotlight on where the problems are greatest and ensure trusts get the support they need, with the vast majority of corridor care concentrated in a small number of organisations.”
It has also been revealed the waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has risen for the first time in six months. An estimated 7.22 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of April, relating to 6.11 million patients, NHS figures show. This is up from 7.11 million treatments and 6.02 million patients at the end of March.
The increase means the size of the list has returned to where it stood in February, reversing the fall that took place in March.
Responding to the latest NHS performance statistics, Tim Gardner, Deputy Director of Policy at the Health Foundation, said: “Today’s figures reflect a huge effort of NHS staff to maintain hospital care against the backdrop of a challenging month, including a heatwave and another round of industrial action by resident doctors. The waiting list for routine hospital treatment increased to 7.22 million in April, with a slight worsening of waiting times and the number of very long waits, following rapid gains in March ahead of the interim targets.”
Urgent and emergency care continued to face severe pressure in May. 75.7% of patients waited less than four hours in A&E departments, which remains short of the NHS’s interim target to hit 78% by March 2026.
Today’s data also highlights, for the first time, the full scale of ‘unacceptable’ corridor care in NHS hospitals, with nearly 3,000 instances per day of patients spending at least 45 minutes in spaces not appropriate for clinical care in May.
“To deliver on the government’s ambitions to cut waiting times, end corridor care and wider changes to improve care outside of hospital, the NHS needs to be able to recruit and retain a highly skilled workforce, backed by strong management. Ensuring the upcoming workforce plan is robust and credible will be critical to the success of the 10-Year Health Plan.”
Meanwhile, it has been revealed two children in England have died from measles this year. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said that one child died from “acute measles” and another child’s death was linked to the “late effects of measles”.
It comes as measles continues to circulate in many parts of the country. So far this year there have been 736 cases compared with 959 cases for the whole of 2025, new figures show.
Many of the cases have been linked to outbreaks in London and the West Midlands. The UKHSA said the majority of cases were among unvaccinated children aged 10 and under.