On Monday, 12 January 2026, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine surveyed Clinical Leads from 81 Emergency Departments (EDs) in England.
The survey acts as a snapshot into the situation in English EDs on that particular day regarding so-called ‘corridor care’, waits for admission and other pressures on hospitals.
It found that the vast majority of EDs (88.89%, or 72/81 departments), reported having at least one patient being treated in a non-designated space, also known as ‘corridor care’, on that single day.
An even higher proportion (93%) of the Clinical Leads said they believed patients were coming to harm because of conditions in ED.
Other key findings from the survey included:
- One in six patients (16.2%) of all patients in these Clinical Leads’ EDs were subject to so-called ‘corridor care’
- The average longest wait for admission across the 81 EDs surveyed was more than 48 hours.
- A mental health patient, in one ED, waited for 16 days for an inpatient bed
- Several others reported waiting seven or more days
- There are many more patients than there are designated spaces for them in ED, making corridor care an inevitability: across the 81 departments there were 2,970 spaces for 7,400 patients on the day of the survey
- There aren’t even enough designated spaces just for patients awaiting admission, who make up 41.5% of the total ED attendances that day
- As well as impacting patients, around half (44%) of Clinical Leads said corridor care was impacting staff mental health.
We also asked Clinical Leads about the reasons behind this overcrowding problem.
Almost all (92.6%) of them said that a main reason for overcrowding in ED was their hospital having difficulties discharging patients who are medically fit, due to social and community care issues.
This was followed by organisational delays affecting discharge, a lack of alternatives to admission for patients (74.1%) and disruptions due to weekends or holidays (55.6%).
Contrary to popular belief, high numbers of low acuity patients (people with less serious conditions or injuries) was only listed by around a third (35.8%) of Clinical Leads in the survey.
93% of clinical leads said difficulties discharging patients at the back door was caused by social care issues, and 84% said it was caused by other organisational delays.
There aren’t even enough designated spaces just for patients awaiting admission [the sickest people] – occupancy levels for these patients alone would be 103.3%
Clinical Leads who responded to the survey were also able to leave written testimonies which illustrate the conditions in their departments.
One said: “Morale is at an all-time low with several staff off sick with stress/burnout.
“Hard to quantify harm in terms of numbers, though harm is without doubt being done as crowding eats into efficiency and is resulting in inevitable delays in care.”
Another added: “In the past we would be in the corridor occasionally, but now it is every day.”
One Clinical Lead said they were “unable to keep patients safe”.