Nearly 500,000 NHS patients spent more than 24 hours in A&E last year, according to recent data. A study by the British Medical Journal revealed that 493,751 individuals endured lengthy stays in emergency departments before receiving further medical attention. Among them, 13,386 patients waited for at least three days. The number of patients spending over a day in A&E had surged by a third between 2023 and 2025 before showing signs of improvement in recent A&E turnaround times.
Mumtaz Patel, the president of the Royal College of Physicians, expressed concern over the unprecedented waits exceeding 24 hours, stating that such delays were rare before 2020. Patel highlighted the distressing accounts of patients preferring to stay home rather than endure lengthy waits in hospitals.
Over the course of more than a decade under Conservative governance, A&E waiting times steadily increased, leading to a significant rise in patients waiting over 12 hours for care. Official figures from NHS England showed a drastic escalation in prolonged wait times, with 50,775 patients waiting beyond 12 hours for a hospital bed by December 2025, compared to 2,356 patients in December 2019.
Healthcare professionals, including Dr. Den Langhor from the British Medical Association, expressed shame over the prolonged waits in A&E. Langhor emphasized the crisis of “corridor care” within emergency departments, highlighting the undignified and unsafe conditions faced by patients waiting for extended periods.
Despite a decrease in the number of patients waiting over four hours in A&E, NHS England acknowledged the ongoing challenges of extended wait times and inadequate spaces for patients. The NHS is working on reforming the urgent and emergency care system to address these issues and support trusts facing significant challenges.
Recent reports revealed that “corridor care” had become normalized in NHS England since 2022, prompting Health Secretary Wes Streeting to pledge an end to this practice by the upcoming general election. Nursing union leader Nicola Ranger resigned from her NHS leadership role due to the introduction of corridor care, foreseeing long-term repercussions.
The article also highlighted the impact of a decade-long NHS funding squeeze under the Conservative government, leading to a surge in patient waits and increased delays during the Covid pandemic. The normalization of caring for patients in temporary spaces like corridors was initiated as an emergency measure in efforts to manage escalating demands in A&E.
The decision to normalize these temporary spaces, as described by Professor Ranger, aimed to alleviate pressure on A&E services and ensure ambulances could promptly attend to other emergencies.