Corridor Care
End Corridor Care
Age UK is actively campaigning against corridor care, highlighting its detrimental effects on older patients and advocating for urgent government action to address the crisis in healthcare.
At Age UK, we hear heartbreaking stories from older people who have had to face treatment, tests, and life-changing news in unsafe conditions and without privacy. Tragically, some older people die before getting a hospital bed or room.
We think corridor care is completely unacceptable
We are calling for urgent and decisive action from the Government to stamp out corridor care and bring down the number of long waits. Strong national leadership is essential to drive change.
Ministers recognise that corridor care is unacceptable. But words are not enough: for the sake of older people and hospital staff they need to take urgent action now.
What is corridor care?
Corridor care happens when A&E departments are too busy and there’s a lack of space. People are forced to wait, often for long periods, in other hospital areas which lack the usual facilities like access to oxygen and monitoring equipment. These may be passages or repurposed cupboards or other co-opted overspill spaces, where people wait on a chair or a trolley.
These places are often uncomfortable, noisy, anything but private, and under-staffed. There is also commonly a lack of facilities: it’s difficult to get food or water or access a toilet.
In short, it's not where you want to be if you are very unwell, whatever your age.
Corridor care was virtually unheard of a decade ago but today it’s becoming ‘normal’: some hospitals are even advertising for corridor care staff. And it’s becoming something especially likely to happen to older people, including very old men and women who are extremely ill or even dying.
Read our report
Find out about the crisis affecting our A&Es and what needs to happen to solve it.