A group of organisations representing nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers have published a letter to NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey demanding the publication of data on corridor care, promised by the government last year.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which published the letter on its website, was among the signatories who aired concern at the impact of the next winter on overstretched accident and emergency (A&E) departments.
“Ending corridor care is a matter of patient safety, staff wellbeing, and public trust”
Letter to Sir Jim Mackey
Among the other 13 signatories – referred to in the letter as the “Corridor Care Coalition” – were fellow union the British Medical Association, charities including Age UK and Marie Curie and the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Emergency Medicine.
The letter referred to a pledge, made last year by health and social care secretary Wes Streeting, to “consign corridor care to history where it belongs”, with the first step being the publication of England-wide data on the issue from trusts by spring of 2025.
The signatories welcomed the promises by Mr Streeting, but said that “meaningful progress” could only start when the data was released.
“That data must be published as soon as possible with commitments for it to then be embedded in regular NHS performance data,” the letter stated.
“This data is critical to building an accurate and honest picture of how corridor care is affecting patients and staff across the system, as well as the scale of the problem.
“Without it, we cannot meaningfully track progress or ensure that resources and reforms are reaching the areas of greatest need,” it said.
“Crucially, this data must cover not only urgent and emergency care settings, but also ward areas, where we know from clinicians and patients that corridor care is increasingly taking place.”
The signatories went on to use the letter to air their concerns about the impact on health of both extremes of seasonal weather in the UK.
They said that they remained “deeply concerned” about poor ventilation in areas where corridor care takes place in the summer, and the influx of patients which may be faced during the busy winter months.
It would be “crucial”, the letter stated, for corridor care data to be published in time for winter resilience planning with weekly figures made public by NHS England.
“Ending corridor care is a matter of patient safety, staff wellbeing, and public trust,” warned the letter from the coalition.
“We stand ready to work constructively with NHS England to support the delivery of this shared ambition, and believe that work must begin with a clear understanding of the problem, and that requires data.
“We would be grateful for your response at your earliest convenience, including a timeline for when the initial data collection and regular reporting will be made available and for a full implementation plan on the eradication of corridor care.”
The RCN has repeatedly raised the alarm about corridor care, in an ongoing campaign dating back years.
In January of this year, the union published a wide-reaching report into the issue with testimonies from nurses who reported having to care for patients in cupboards, car parks and other inappropriate areas on a daily basis.
Read more on corridor care and the RCN
