Corridor care is last resort, says hospital

A leading teaching hospital said that caring for patients in corridors was a "last resort".

Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge recorded that 288 patients were cared for in the emergency department's corridors in January, rising from 251 in the same month last year, board papers showed.

A spokesperson for the hospital said it does everything to avoid corridor care "with the help of dedicated staff and a robust winter plan aimed at maintaining flow through the hospital".

Health minister Karin Smyth said the government was "committed" to stopping corridor care by the end of the current Parliament in 2029.

Figures also showed that patients cared for in day rooms or corridors in wards had risen from 378 in January 2025 to 419 the same month this year.

A spokesperson for the hospital said it had increased its same day emergency care options "to speed up care" for its patients, alongside expanding its urgent care centre, opening additional winter wards and providing more emergency medicine clinicians.

When speaking at a Health and Social Care Select Committee meeting on Wednesday, Dr Ian Higginson, the president of Royal College of Emergency Medicine, described corridor care as a "visible symptom of overcrowding".

He said the primary problem was that there were not enough beds for patients.

"Through our virtual ward and increased capacity in the discharge lounge, we are working hard to discharge those patients ready to go home, to free up beds for those who need them," said an Addenbrooke's Hospital's spokesperson.

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