Corridor care pushing nurse morale ‘to the point of no return’, RCN warns

Corridor care is pushing staff morale ‘to the point of no return’, with some nurses describing the conditions patients endure as akin to ‘torture,’ the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned.

The college has this week repeated its call for an urgent, fully funded action plan to eradicate corridor care, including investment in hospital beds, the nursing workforce, community services and social care.

The warning comes as several NHS trusts in England have declared critical incidents amid dangerously high demand, leaving hospitals without space in emergency departments or beds to admit patients.

In new analysis from the RCN, nursing staff have detailed severe examples of corridor care, including a patient left sitting in a chair for four days, and another who died after choking while left undetected in a corridor.

Nurses have also described holding up white sheets to preserve dignity during intimate procedures, and working in corridors so crowded that an elderly patient was forced to eat next to someone who was vomiting.

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One nurse working in the Southwest of England said patients feel ‘deeply embarrassed, objectified, judged’ and uncared for, adding that some would rather risk dying at home than endure what she described as ‘a type of torture’ within hospital corridors.

Another nurse in the South of England said: ‘We would not treat animals like this in a veterinary practice, so why in a hospital?’

New YouGov polling cited by the RCN found that 18% of UK adults have witnessed care being delivered in a corridor or other non-clinical space in the past six months.

Among those who accessed NHS care for themselves or a loved one, this rose to more than one in three (36%).

RCN general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger said corridor care has spread far beyond emergency departments and was now a ‘permanent fixture’ across hospitals, despite nursing staff declaring a national emergency over the issue in June 2024.

‘There can be no safe, dignified care delivered in a corridor, storeroom or dining room, yet this has become the norm,’ she said.

‘Every day, patients are coming to harm at the point when they need excellent care the most, and that is deeply troubling.’

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She warned that the ongoing failure to act was taking a ‘terrible toll’ on staff morale, pushing it close to ‘the point of no return’, and urged ministers to take decisive action to restore standards and retain the nursing workforce.

The RCN also criticised the government for failing to publish national data on corridor care in England, which it had committed to releasing by 5 February 2025.

The college said it has written twice to NHS England chief executive Jim Mackey on the issue without response.

This follows the publication last week of a report by the government’s patient safety investigator, which highlighted the normalisation of corridor care across NHS trusts and warned that poor data collection is preventing leaders from understanding the scale of harm to patients.

The RCN has called on governments to publish national-level data immediately and to introduce a fully funded action plan with a clear timeline for eradicating corridor care.

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It said this must include investment in hospital bed capacity, improved nurse staffing levels, and accelerated funding for community services and social care to support safe discharge.

Last month RCN Wales and British Medical Association (BMA) Cymru Wales launched a petition to end corridor care, warning that shortages in community nursing, GP access and social care were fuelling hospital overcrowding and forcing treatment into unsafe corridor spaces.

The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.