Corridor care is now so normal in hospitals that many are installing plug sockets and emergency call bells in hallways, an investigation has found.
Many staff members ‘could not avoid’ using corridors to treat patients, the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) was told.
One patient reported waiting as long as 40 hours in a hospital corridor, during which time a patient next to them died on a trolley, Healthwatch England revealed.
Experts have said HSSIB’s findings demonstrate ‘the catastrophic state of the health service’.
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The health safety watchdog visited 13 hospitals between August and December 2025, and included input from four further hospitals.
In all cases, corridors were regularly used for care.
Some senior staff told investigators that they ‘could not avoid’ using adapted temporary spaces to treat patients.
These adaptations include installing emergency call bells, plug sockets, patient call bells and communication systems.
Other senior hospital staff said they were against those changes because they ‘did not want to normalise’ corridor care.
Doctors and nurses said, however, that corridor care is the ‘best worse’ option.
The ‘worst options’ were described as leaving people at home, in ambulances or unseen in waiting rooms.
The Royal College of Nursing’s Chief Nursing Officer Lynn Woolsey said that the report proved corridor care was ‘entirely normalised’ for ‘all year round’.
She added: ‘It means every day vulnerable people are being treated in unsafe and undignified conditions.
‘It is difficult to overstate the catastrophic state of the health service if patients’ expectations are so low that they almost expect being left on trollies in corridors with too few staff to care for them safely.
‘The reality is that there is no safe level of corridor care, or level of staffing that can make it so.
‘The secretary of state pledged to eradicate corridor care by the end of this parliament, but this report shows patients and staff alike do not have years to wait.’
Healthwatch, the independent body that represents patients’ views on health care, said that many patients were stuck in corridor care for hours.
One person told them December they waited 40 hours in a hospital corridor, during which time a patient next to them died on a trolley.
Chris McCann, deputy chief executive at Healthwatch England, said: ‘We agree with HSSIB’s findings, which reinforce our own evidence that patients are being cared for in undignified conditions, often for hours at a time, in non‑clinical spaces.
‘Sleep deprivation, loss of dignity, exposure to distressing situations, and the desperation that drives people to self‑discharge put patients’ health and wellbeing at risk.
‘No one should ever have to receive medical care in a hallway.’
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s president Dr Ian Higginson said there nothing new about the ‘dire situation’.
‘Storerooms being converted to put patients in, difficulties monitoring patients, staff debating who is ‘less sick’ to be put in a corridor, and clinicians experiencing burnout and fatigue because of the number of patients being cared for in spaces that were never designed to deliver care in.
‘It’s deeply saddening that this is the state of emergency care in our country.’
However, the HSSIB’s senior safety investigator Saskia Fursland stressed: ‘In contrast to the chaotic picture that’s often presented of ‘corridor care’, in the course of our investigation we saw first-hand how individual NHS trusts are adapting to ensure that the patient safety risks associated with using temporary care environments are being mitigated.’
The HSSIB’s report also called for the NHS to bolster its understanding of why these spaces are used to improve patient safety, including agreeing on definitions of temporary care environments and boosting information gathering.
In December, Health Secretary Wes Streeting confirmed his commitment to eradicate ‘corridor care’ by 2029.
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.
‘That is why NHS England is working closely with trusts to reduce variation, tackle inconsistencies, improve data collection and reduce discharge delays, alongside social care colleagues.
‘Staff are under immense pressure, and this report highlights the dedication and professionalism of those who are keeping patients safe and delivering the best care they can.
‘We know there is a long road ahead. This year we began preparing for winter earlier than ever before, delivering hundreds of thousands of extra vaccines to reduce pressure on hospitals, and investing £450 million to expand urgent and emergency care, deploy 500 new ambulances and build 40 new mental health crisis centres so patients can get the care they need, when they need it.’
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