Age UK response to NHSE action plan on corridor care

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK said:  "This initiative is a welcome step forward in the battle to eradicate corridor care. The fact that the Chief Executives of some of the hospitals most impacted by corridor care have agreed to take specific actions, and be accountable for progress made against them, is particularly encouraging. We know there has been a degree of denial about corridor care among some hospital management teams so today should put an end to that: from now on we hope to hear many more Chief Executives say that they don't want to see corridor care in their hospital and are determined to drive the practice out."

"Welcome though this news is today's developments will not, on their own, solve corridor care, which is essentially a canary in the mine for the wider problems affecting the health and care system. There is no new money to help hospitals tackle corridor care either, everything will have to done within existing resources, limiting what can be achieved..

"There remains a pressing need for Ministers to take responsibility for addressing the wider problems that have led to the huge spike in corridor care in recent years, such as the need to do more to support older people to stay fit and well in their own homes, thereby avoiding unnecessary admissions, and to reduce the incidence of delayed discharges by increasing resources for the NHS and local government so they can afford to buy the social care that is available in local areas.

"Age UK will continue to call for the Government to publish a funded plan, with timescales and milestones, so the Secretary of State's pledge to end corridor care in this Parliament can be fulfilled."