Here’s a breakdown of the key information from the provided text, focusing on the crisis in UK A&E departments and “corridor care”:
Key Issues:
* “corridor Care” is widespread: Patients are routinely being treated in non-clinical areas like corridors (“escalation areas”) due to overcrowding.Almost one in five patients in UK emergency departments were in these areas in March. The situation is suspected to be worsening.
* High death Toll: The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) estimates over 16,600 deaths last year were linked to very long waits in A&E for a hospital bed – roughly 320 deaths per week. This is compared to the outrage that would follow a similar number of deaths in other accidents (bus/plane crashes).
* Staff Burnout: The crisis is severely impacting healthcare staff, leading to burnout, moral injury, exhaustion, and PTSD.
* Long Wait Times: In November, over 50,648 people in England waited more than 12 hours in A&E from the decision to admit to actually being admitted.
Proposed Solutions & Responses:
* RCEM President (Higginson) believes the problem is fixable with political will. He advocates for:
* Increased hospital efficiency
* More staff relative to hospital beds
* Improved community and social care to facilitate timely patient discharge.
* Government Pledge: Health Secretary wes Streeting has pledged to end corridor care in England by the next general election (or sooner).
* current Efforts (criticized by Higginson): Current efforts are focused on “quick and easy” solutions like discouraging people from going to the hospital.
* NHS Response: NHS England states that patients waiting excessively long is “totally unacceptable.”
related Article:
The text repeatedly links to a Guardian article from December 9, 2025, detailing the extent of “corridor care” in the UK: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/dec/09/corridor-care-endemic-uk-doctors-study-reveals-scale-problem
