NHS leaders urge action to tackle root causes of corridor care
Ahead of the Senedd debate on ending corridor care in Wales, NHS leaders have highlighted the urgent need to address the root causes of ‘corridor care’ in hospitals, which they say is a consequence of system-wide challenges.
NHS leaders recognise that treating patients in corridors or other temporary escalation spaces (TES) is unsuitable, undignified and potentially unsafe. They stress this practice is a symptom of wider system pressures, including problems with patient flow, rising demand due to an ageing population and fragility in the social care sector. This can leave NHS staff sometimes unable to provide the standard of care they would like to.
Largely due to growing demand and capacity issues in social care, at any one time, roughly 15% of beds in Welsh hospitals are occupied by patients who are medically fit to be discharged, but for whom there is no available onwards package of care.
NHS leaders warn that banning corridor care without tackling underlying issues risks worsening ambulance delays and harming patients elsewhere in the system. They call for integrated solutions across health and social care to ensure safe, dignified and timely care for patients.
Key priorities for NHS leaders include:
- Social care reform: Long-term investment and radical reform to stabilise the sector, supporting patient flow and helping keep people out of hospital.
- Prevention and early intervention: Stabilising demand (reducing avoidable hospital admissions) through preventative initiatives and early intervention, including strengthening community-based services.
- Capital investment: A comprehensive 10-year strategy to modernise facilities, upgrade equipment and improve digital systems, thereby improving productivity, patient safety and experience.
- Workforce planning: A clear, costed, long-term health and social care workforce plan to ensure we can meet future demand and support the workforce.
Darren Hughes, director of the Welsh NHS Confederation, said:
"NHS leaders and frontline staff work incredibly hard to keep patients safe and work on the root causes of corridor care provision, targeting flow through the system by improving patient discharge, working with local authorities to improve social care support – key in preventing demand – providing alternatives to Emergency Departments (EDs) and prioritising older patients at the ‘front door’ through increased frailty screening.
“But with rising demand and capacity issues across the breadth of the health and care system, demand inadvertently pushes back onto EDs, which are open 24/7. This means NHS staff are sometimes left with no alternative but to make difficult decisions to manage risk.
“No patient should be treated in a corridor, but banning temporary escalation spaces without fixing the root causes will only push the problem elsewhere. NHS leaders don’t want to see ‘corridor care’ replaced by (ambulance) ‘car park care’, exacerbating ambulance handover delays and slowing their response, increasing the risk of harm to patients (with possibly more serious emergencies) in communities.
“We urgently need long-term investment in social care, prevention, capital infrastructure and workforce planning to ensure the NHS can deliver safe, dignified care for everyone who needs it."
This briefing was sent to Members of the Senedd in preparation for the debate on the Royal College of Nursing Wales and the BMA Cymru Wales petition P-06-1534 End corridor care in Wales, taking place on Wednesday 10 December 2025.
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