Emergency medicine
suspected internal bleeding (it was cancer). I sat in a chair in A&E overnight with a drip in my arm. Eventually, I was given a trolley at 8am the next morning”.
Inequalities These problems are not experienced equally among all older people, however. l More than a third 35% of ethnic minority people aged 50+ experienced NHS care delivered in corridors, compared to 22% of white people the same age.11
l 30% of people aged 50+ with a long- term health condition has experienced corridor care themselves, compared to 18% of those without.12
l 34% of carers aged 50+ have experienced corridor care themselves, compared to 20% of those who are not carers.13
Staffing Long A&E waits and corridor care affect staff too. The Royal College of Nursing’s (RCN) 2025 ‘On the Frontline of the UK’s Corridor Care Crisis ’ report, surveying nursing staff across the UK, found that Corridor Care is a significant feature of many staff’s daily experience: two thirds (67%) of the respondents said that they deliver care in an inappropriate setting every day. This is affecting their ability to care for people and is leaving them demoralised and distressed.14 Among the A&E nurses who responded to the RCN’s survey, 91% said that patient care and safety is being compromised.15
Lack of hospital planning and care in the community The problem usually stems in large part from the hospital’s inability to process people quickly once they’re through the door. On any given day, there are 13,000 people medically fit for discharge stuck in hospitals in our country, almost all of them aged 65 plus.16 These delayed discharges can happen for a number of different reasons, and the following areas need to be addressed to speed up the flow in hospitals: l Poor organisation and co-ordination of functions and activities within the hospital l A lack of social care and other forms of
support in the community
l Delays in accessing community health services such as District Nurses and Occupational Therapists.
An increase in the availability of senior medical staff in and around A&E, particularly of geriatricians who specialise in the care of older people, can really help to speed things up because with their experience and insight they are better able to make quick decisions about what’s best for an older person. In some cases, the right course of action may be for them to return home and be treated there. Caroline Abrahams CBE, Age UK Charity
Director, said: “What’s happening to some very ill older people when they come to A&E is a crisis hiding in plain sight which the Government must face up to and take immediate action to resolve. No one should have to spend their final days in a hospital corridor where it’s impossible for the staff to provide good, compassionate care, and it’s truly shocking that this is what is happening to some very old people in some hospitals, today and every
day...Many of the stories we have heard from older people and their families are heart-breaking and, to make it worse, the older you are, the more likely you are it seems to
Many of the stories we have heard from older people and their families are heart-breaking and, to make it worse, the older you are, the more likely you are it seems to endure a lengthy and often uncomfortable wait.
endure a lengthy and often uncomfortable wait. “Corridor care and long A&E waits are
like a rot eating away the heart of the NHS, undermining public trust and destroying the ability of committed hospital staff to be able to take pride in a job well done. As a result, we fear that poor quality care in and around some A&E departments is now almost expected - a truly dire situation we must act urgently to turn around. “The good news is that these problems can
be tackled and solved - some hospitals have the problem of long waits and corridor care under control. There’s a lot that hospitals themselves can do to improve the situation in their A&Es, but what’s most needed now is for Government to step up, show determined leadership and use all the levers at its disposal – including targets, inspection and funding – to bring this crisis, which is disproportionately hurting our oldest old, to an end.”
Calls on Government To give older people the dignity and respect they deserve, Age UK is calling for the Government to implement a package of measures: l Urgently produce a funded operational plan to reduce the incidence of long A&E waits and end Corridor Care, with specific deadlines and milestones.
l Establish a robust system to collect and publish regular data on corridor care (as well as long A&E waits), and their impacts on the public, including by age and ethnicity.
l Appoint a Minister in the Department of Health and Social Care to be accountable for reducing long A&E waits and ending corridor
January 2026 I
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