Doctors back call for urgent Welsh Government action plan to end corridor care in NHS hospitals
Doctors in Wales have backed a call for the Welsh Government to produce an urgent action plan to end the practice of treating patients in hospital corridors and other unsuitable spaces.
BMA Cymru Wales, the doctors’ association, has thrown its support behind the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, who has called on ministers to act on what the BMA describes as an unsafe and increasingly normalised practice across NHS Wales hospitals.
Patients are being cared for in corridors, waiting areas and on chairs due to chronic overcrowding, according to the BMA, with staff unable to provide safe treatment without adequate equipment or support.
Dr Manish Adke, chair of the BMA’s Welsh Consultants Committee, said: “This practice exposes vulnerable individuals to a lack of privacy, dignity, and essential care, while staff struggle to deliver safe treatment without adequate equipment or support.
“Such conditions are not only distressing for patients and their families, but also place healthcare professionals in impossible situations, forced to choose between unsafe options.
“Despite our joint petition with RCN Wales and the subsequent debate in the Senedd last December, we are yet to see any meaningful action.”
BMA Cymru Wales and the Royal College of Nursing Wales ran a joint petition last year calling for Welsh Government intervention, which gathered more than 10,000 signatures.
The petition called on the Welsh Government to begin recording and reporting corridor care incidents, to make it a category of serious incident that should never happen for patients to receive care in chairs for more than 24 hours, to pause reductions in NHS Wales hospital beds, and to invest in community-based care including district nursing and general practice.
A Senedd debate on the issue followed in December 2025.
The BMA says it has yet to see meaningful action from the Welsh Government since that debate.
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which covers north Wales including Flintshire and has been in special measures since 2023, has been among the health boards where corridor care and A&E overcrowding have been repeatedly raised as concerns.
Dr Adke said the BMA fully backed the Commissioner’s call and hoped any action plan would include implementing the demands set out in the petition.
The Welsh Government was not approached for a response.