Our response to NHS England's letter on corridor care

Today NHSE has written to all trust chief executives requiring them to collect data that will be published from May onwards about the levels of corridor care taking place in hospitals. 

Thirty trusts facing the most serious corridor care problems will also have to produce action plans to eradicate the practice of treating patients in clinically unsuitable spaces that don’t give people access to privacy, dignity, call bells and nearby safety equipment, and which also demoralise and distress staff working in challenging conditions.

We are a member of the Corridor Care Coalition, which NHSE acknowledged in its letter for the constructive challenge it has brought on this issue. 

Our representative shared patient stories at an NHSE corridor care summit held last week, including that of a man recovering from a prostate operation who was intimately examined by a doctor in a public corridor, with no privacy curtain, while people walked past. We also published latest insight of public experiences of corridor care last month. 

Rebecca Curtayne, our acting head of policy, public affairs and research, said: 

“The actions set out by NHS England today are a welcome start to eliminating this totally unacceptable form of care.  This includes endorsement of Healthwatch England’s recommendation to NHSE for trust leaders to ‘walk the corridors’ out of hours to see patients and staff experiences first hand.  We know that change in the NHS often starts from the top and relies on a culture that trust leaders enable, to support staff to stamp out poor care.

“Transparency is also vital – if you don’t measure the scale of the problem, you can’t know how to tackle it and track improvements. So the commitment by NHSE to collect and publish hospital data on corridor care is also welcome. As the NHS takes these extra actions to tackle corridor care, we will continue to speak up for affected patients and families.”