Following the publication of a Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) investigation report, RCP clinical director for patient safety and clinical standards, Dr Zuzanna Sawicka, reflects on the growing impact of corridor care.
For the first time, a national patient safety investigation into corridor care has been conducted, and it exposes an uncomfortable truth that patients and clinicians are all too familiar with. It shows that a sense of acceptance around corridor care is starting to take root among patients, many of whom, the HSSIB reported, were simply grateful to have been seen at all. And while NHS staff told the HSSIB that providing care in temporary spaces is still viewed as a last resort, they echoed the concerns of RCP members who say that corridor care is at serious risk of becoming normalised.
Staff are often forced to make impossible decisions about which of the ‘most well unwell’ patients should be placed in a temporary care environment – a challenge highlighted in the HSSIB report. These issues are repeated across the hospital, from the front door to the wards, where beds and chairs are squeezed into bays and patients are cared for in repurposed day rooms or offices that were never intended for clinical use.
At the heart of this crisis are our patients, and the very real impact these conditions have on their outcomes and experiences. One of my patients was moved to a day room being used as a temporary care environment. They said that while the staff were kind, it was the little things that matters. What should have been a short walk to the bathroom became a ten-metre assisted journey, and a fixed table meant they were unable to reach for water by themselves. Despite seeming small, these losses of independence can slow recovery and make it harder to get home.
Across the NHS we hear the same stories, with staff apologising for conditions outside of their control, clinicians forced to break bad news behind thin screens or at bedsides because there is nowhere private to talk, and families trying to navigate these spaces to spend time with loved ones. A 2025 RCP survey found that 94% of physicians felt their patients’ privacy and dignity were compromised in temporary care environments, mirroring the distress reported by frontline staff in this investigation.
Perhaps the most distressing situations relate to people who are nearing the end of life. These individuals deserve the greatest comfort yet may find themselves spending precious time in a place never intended for such moments. While staff do everything possible to move dying patients to more appropriate surroundings, this is not always achievable when hospitals are full. As clinicians, we are painfully aware of how far this falls from the calm, dignified environment we want to offer at the end of life.
It is easy to say that corridor care is unacceptable, but the response needs to go further. As a health system, we must resist the quiet normalisation of practices that undermine patient safety and dignity. Locally, clinicians and managers should continue raising concerns each time care is compromised – whether through an overheard sensitive conversation, the impossibility of providing privacy, or a family forced to receive life-changing news in an open space. Nationally, the RCP will keep pushing for honest and transparent data on the true extent of this crisis. Without it, we cannot establish a meaningful baseline or understand whether the situation is improving.
RCP campaign calls on corridor care:
- protect patients and staff by supporting them when care is delivered in temporary care environments
- prevent this practice by implementing systems and processes to improve patient flow and discharge
- pledge long term investment in social care and public health initiatives to tackle avoidable admissions and improve health
- publish data all year round on how many patients are being treated in temporary care environments.
The relentless pressure facing hospitals risks embedding corridor care into the fabric of the NHS. We cannot allow that to happen. Patients deserve to be cared for in spaces that enable them to heal and recover, not ones that strip away privacy, independence and dignity. Staff deserve adequate space and resources to deliver the care they were trained to provide, not where apologies are a constant part of care. We owe patients and staff a system that lives up to its principles.
Dr Zuzanna Sawicka
Clinical director for clinical standards and patient safety
