Nearly 3,000 sick patients were treated in NHS hospital corridors or makeshift areas every day in May rather than beds, but 20 trusts accounted for more than half of those cases.
The NHS trust with the worst rate of corridor care was London North West University Healthcare with more than 100 average daily cases last month, followed by Royal Free London with 86 and Lewisham & Greenwich, also in London, with 77 cases.
It comes as the NHS published data for the first time revealing the full scale of the national corridor care crisis.
More than 2,200 patients received care in a corridor of an A&E department every day in May, the data shows, while another 669 patients experienced it on or near hospital wards. Examples inappropriate settings include cupboards, cafes or toilets due to a lack of beds in emergency departments.
The daily number represents between 3 and 4 per cent of patients coming into hospital via A&E every day.
Corridor care is defined by NHS England as treatment that does not take place in a clinically appropriate and safe setting.
The criteria used for defining an appropriate setting include at-bed services such as oxygen and call bells; whether privacy can be maintained; access to food, water and toilets; and whether lights can be turned off and noise levels minimised to allow sleep.
If treatment does not meet any one of these criteria, is it classed as corridor care.
It is the first time figures for corridor care have been published by NHS England.
Two sets of data have been released, showing corridor care in hospital emergency departments and also in hospital wards.
The figures cover patients receiving treatment, waiting for assessment, admission or transfer, but do not include ambulance handover delays.
Some 20 NHS trusts accounted for more than half (51.1 per cent) of the average daily number of patients receiving corridor care for more than 45 minutes in emergency departments in May, with London North West University Healthcare having the highest number (100 patients or 4.4 per cent of the total), followed by the Royal Free London (86 or 3.8 per cent) and Lewisham & Greenwich (77 or 3.4 per cent).
For corridor care in hospital wards – which covers patients who are being treated within a ward but not in a designated bed space – 20 NHS trusts accounted for more than two-thirds (68.6 per cent) of the total in May, with North Bristol having the highest number (40 patients or 6 per cent of the average daily total), followed by University Hospitals Sussex (39 or 5.8 per cent) and Mid Yorkshire Hospitals (32 or 4.8 per cent).
The averages for patients are rounded to the nearest whole number, other than when the figure is between one and zero.
A Spokesperson for Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals said: “This is not the experience we would want for our patients, and our teams across our hospitals are working hard to address the pressures in the Emergency Department to always ensure the safety, wellbeing, privacy and comfort of our patients.
In response to the growth in the number of patients we have seen over recent years, we are undertaking a phased programme of work including a new Urgent Treatment Centre which opened at the RVI in January, a new triage and assessment space which will be complete this year, and in 2027 we will be refurbishing our Emergency Department to increase the number of private cubicles available.”
A spokesperson for Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “Treating patients in corridors is not what we want to see, and eliminating it is our priority.
“We are taking action such as directing more patients to our Urgent Treatment Centre, and are already seeing a reduction in corridor care and length of stay.”
Dr Helen Skinner, Chief Medical Officer, UHMBT, said: “Reducing corridor care is a key priority for UHMBT and our staff work hard every day to take all possible actions to address this issue.”Caring for patients on a corridor is not what we want for our patients and we are working hard to minimise and in the longer term eliminate this type of care from our hospitals, while ensuring that the care of our patients remains safe.”We are implementing a plan to improve the flow of patients from our Emergency Departments through our hospital wards so they get home more quickly, treating them with dignity and compassion at each stage of their care to ensure their time in hospital is minimised.”
Talib Yaseen, Chief Nursing Officer at the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, said: “We fully acknowledge that too many of our patients are experiencing care in corridors and temporary escalation spaces in our emergency departments and medical wards.
“The reasons this happens are well known by now to most people using NHS services across the country: unprecedented demand and being unable to discharge patients quickly enough. But this is not an excuse: we are sorry to anyone who has experienced corridor care at Mid Yorkshire.”
The NHS trusts have been contacted by The Independent.