‘It’s deeply saddening that this is the state of emergency care in our country’: RCEM responds to HSSIB report on corridor care
Responding to the Health Services Safety Investigation Body (HSSIB) investigation report on patient care in temporary care environments published today (8 January 2026), President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Ian Higginson said: “This investigation by HSSIB provides a snapshot of the state of so-called corridor care in our emergency departments. It’s yet another report, adding to the growing pile of evidence, documenting how dire the situation is.
“What’s most alarming is that there is nothing shocking about the findings – storerooms being converted to put patients in, difficulties monitoring patients, staff debating who is ‘less sick’ to be put in a corridor, and clinicians experiencing burnout and fatigue because of the number of patients being cared for in spaces that were never designed to deliver care in.
“It’s deeply saddening that this is the state of emergency care in our country.
“Corridor care has become so normalised that even the recommendations contained in this report are primarily based on mitigation, not eradication.
“It’s a result of the system not functioning as it should. We struggle to move patients into wards because there’s no available beds. People then become stuck in ED, waiting hours, sometimes days for a bed. And this is where the harm lies – in 2024, the deaths of more than16,600 people were associated with long waits. I’m dreading what this number will be for 2025.
“Last month, the Health and Social Care Secretary committed to eradicating corridor care by 2029. So, the government knows it’s happening, it knows the harm being caused – so where is the action and urgency to end it, rather than allowing the system to adapt to tolerate it?”
