A new University of Bristol study finds nearly 1 in 5 NHS emergency department patients are treated in corridors or waiting rooms, highlighting severe overcrowding and mounting pressure
The study underscores severe emergency department overcrowding and mounting NHS A&E pressure, raising concerns about patient safety, care quality, and staff strain. It highlights the urgent need for greater hospital capacity, better resource allocation, and strategies to reduce waiting times nationwide.
The research is published in the journal Emergency Medicine.
Providing high-quality data to back up corridor care claims
Because of overcrowding in emergency departments across the UK, more people are being treated in corridors. However, there is no high-quality evidence showing its impact.
A team of researchers studied clinical activity in 165 of 228 type 1 emergency departments that provide consultant-led, 24-hour services with full resuscitation facilities at five time points over ten days in March 2025.
Local reporting teams used electronic health records, department management systems, and real-time observations to record the number of patients in escalation areas. They also recorded the number of patients awaiting an inpatient bed, the number of cubicles or chair spaces in each emergency department (by resuscitation room and non-resuscitation room), whether children and patients with a mental health issue were in escalation areas, and the availability of resuscitation cubicles.
An escalation area was defined as ‘any area not routinely used unless the capacity of the usual emergency department geographical footprint is exceeded’ and they included: an ambulance queueing to offload for more than 15 minutes; a repurposed clinical area; a non-clinical area, such as a hospital corridor or waiting room; and a doubled-up cubicle.
Corridor care is a regular occurrence, especially for children and mental health patients
The data revealed that emergency department patients were commonly treated in escalation areas. Across all five time points, researchers found that 10,042 patients—equivalent to 18% of all 56,881 emergency department attendees—were treated in escalation areas. Between 70% and 90% of sites reported having patients in these areas.
The largest share of patients in escalation areas was cared for in non-clinical spaces, such as waiting rooms and corridors (53% to 58%), while repurposed clinical spaces accounted for 31.5% to 39%.
The busiest time in emergency departments was Monday at 7 pm, with 15,933 patients present. However, the highest proportion of patients in escalation areas—over 1 in 5 (21%)—occurred on Thursday at 7 am, at the end of the clinical night shift, when the total number of patients was lowest (7,056).
At every time point, both children and patients with mental health needs were cared for in escalation areas.
Dr Tom Roberts, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Emergency Medicine in Bristol Medical School: Translational Health Sciences (THS) and corresponding author, concluded: “National guidance from NHS England states that escalation area use is not acceptable; this study demonstrates that it is widespread and routine. The same guidance states that children and those with mental health problems should never experience escalation of care; this study demonstrates that this is occurring regularly.
“Admitting patients awaiting an inpatient bed from the [emergency department] would largely solve the escalation area care problem… Healthcare policy makers must address this issue or openly accept escalation area care and its associated harms as a standard experience in UK emergency care.”
