12 April 2026
New urgent treatment centres will do little to nothing in tackling and eradicating the national shame that is corridor care.
That’s the warning from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine after the government today (11 April 2026) announced a suite of measures to tackle corridor care in Emergency departments around England.
And it’s urging policy makers to turn their focus to addressing the systemic issues that contribute to people being cared for in non-clinical spaces.
The plan, released by the Department of Health and Social Care, confirms there will be 40 new and expanded urgent treatment centres and same day emergency care services.
Trusts with the highest levels of corridor care will receive bespoke plans and support to eradicate the practice by the end of 2029.
Responding, RCEM President, Dr Ian Higginson, said: “We welcome the government’s commitment to eradicate the national shame of corridor care in our Emergency Departments, and we are interested to see another effort to introduce tailored support to tackle the issue in particularly challenged Trusts.
“However, new attendance avoidance services such as urgent treatment centres are not the answer to reducing corridor care and will not make a dent in the number of people who are enduring long waits on trollies in inappropriate places such as corridors.
“These services focus on the least unwell patients, and it’s the most unwell or those with mental health problems who are filling our corridors. Such centres are also a sticking plaster over the failure to properly commission primary care services for patients with non-emergency medical, mental health and dental problems.
“Same Day Emergency Care is helpful because it can reduce the use of hospital beds. We are fully supportive of efforts to optimise this way of practising. However, too many of these services are set up to open at times when it’s easier and cheaper to staff them, rather than when they are actually needed. Many also only take a restricted group of patients, or close early when they become full up: a luxury not afforded to Emergency Departments.
“Emergency Departments are open all the time, and don’t turn people away. Yet with extra resources going into services that often close when they are most needed, they are left under pressure and understaffed whilst being asked to pick up the pieces in the evenings, overnight, and over holiday periods: looking after the patients who can’t access the care they need because services aren’t built around their needs.
“Determined moves to focus on leadership and culture in struggling hospitals are welcome, although the impact and sustainability of such interventions is unknown. We know the GIRFT team are very data driven and will look at this. The problem of corridor care does need to be owned beyond the Emergency Department. However, such interventions will only go so far towards fixing the problem in the long term.
“Fundamentally, the main cause of long stays and corridor care is the result of a lack of alternatives to admission when needed, or of available beds for patients who require admission to hospital. So, these interventions are not the whole answer. Patients often can’t access care when they need it, and certainly not without trying to navigate an overly complex system.
“This often means they end up in hospital when they don’t need to. Our hospitals and supporting services aren’t set up to work effectively in the evenings and at weekends. And each day, there are people in beds who no longer need to be in hospital because there aren’t appropriate community or social care options for them. That is where our politicians are reluctant to go because it requires long term and strategic solutions outlasting news cycles and political lifetimes.
“Once again, we urge the government to turn their attention to the ‘back door’ of our departments and give it the same focus they are giving to the ‘front door’. I hope that bespoke plans for trusts take this into account. Only then will they make corridor care a practice of the past.”