Nearly 3,000 patients a day face corridor care in NHS

Nearly 3,000 patients a day had to be cared for in hospital corridors or make-shift treatment areas rather in a bed on a ward in England last month, figures show.

It is the first time the data has been published and reveals the scale of the challenge facing the NHS in tackling what ministers say is "unsafe" and "unacceptable".

Corridor care is when patients spend more than 45 minutes waiting for an appropriate place for their care and ministers have pledged to eradicate the practice by 2029.

In A&E this can be in corridors and side-rooms and make-shift treatment areas where there is not the proper equipment to keep them safe and maintain dignity.

On the wards, it is when patients have been waiting for a bed for 45 minutes or more.

The figures show during May there were 2,241 patients a day, on average, who experience corridor care, while on wards there were 669.

NHS analysis found that 20 trusts accounted for more than half of the cases of corridor care in A&E, while 20 trusts also accounted for more than two thirds elsewhere in hospitals.

Health Secretary James Murray said: "Corridor care is unacceptable, undignified and has no place in our NHS.