Rebecca has called on the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to take urgent action to get a grip on increasingly common instances of "corridor care” at St Helier Hospital and East Surrey Hospital, warning that unsafe and undignified conditions are placing an unacceptable strain on both patients and staff - especially during the risky winter months.
Following a recent visit to St Helier Hospital, Rebecca wrote to the Secretary of State for Health to urgently raise concerns about the conditions she witnessed and the broader pressures facing the local hospital estate. In her letter, Rebecca described staff repeatedly highlighting the fundamental lack of space to function and the wholly inadequate conditions in which clinicians are trying to deliver care. She said she saw patients being treated in cold, draughty corridors due to a lack of available beds, with limited access to appropriate facilities and little privacy or dignity for patients and their families.
Rebecca also raised concerns about East Surrey Hospital, where the Trust has also been forced to use corridor areas for patient care, with parts of the main corridor reportedly closed off due to the number of patients being treated there. In her letter, she warned that conditions of this kind raise serious issues around patient safety, infection control, staff welfare, and the resilience of the NHS estate.
Given the urgency of the matter, Rebecca then took the issue directly to the House of Commons. During Health and Social Care Questions on 13 January, she told the House that corridor care contributes to staff burnout and described her visit to St Helier as “very concerning and distressing”, adding that similar conditions were being seen at East Surrey Hospital. She asked when patients and staff could expect the issue to be resolved “for good”.
Watch Rebecca question Health Secretary here
Responding at the despatch box, Wes Streeting agreed that the state of corridor care is “appalling” and criticised the normalisation of the practice, including the use of euphemistic language such as “temporary escalation spaces”. He told MPs the Government intends to publish data so both Ministers and the system can be held to account, and said he wants corridor care “gone over the course of this Parliament”, while acknowledging that patients are still being treated in corridors this winter and that the situation remains unacceptable.
Shortly after this exchange in the House, the Department for Health & Social Care responded to Rebecca's earlier letter. Their answer reiterated that the Government considers care in corridors to be “not acceptable”, and pointed to national measures intended to improve urgent and emergency care performance and reduce the reliance on the euphemistically named "escalation spaces".
Commenting, Rebecca said:
"Ending corridor care must now be treated as an urgent priority. The Government has given me reassuring answers following my interventions but the proof will be in the delivery. I will keep pushing for transparency, investment in capacity, and a realistic plan for modernising overstretched estates which must sit at the heart of any credible approach. I have asked to be kept updated on the actions being taken locally at both Trusts, and will continue pressing Ministers for clear timelines and measurable improvements - because the practice of leaving patients in corridors must never be allowed to become the 'new normal' either for the patients themselves or for the staff who care for them."
