Nine Welsh health and care organisations write to Welsh Government demanding action on corridor care
Nine health and care organisations have written to the Welsh Government’s health minister demanding urgent action on corridor care, the practice of treating patients in hospital corridors, waiting rooms and car parks because no clinical space is available.
The letter was sent to Mabon ap Gwynfor MS, Cabinet Minister for Health and Care, on 22 June 2026.
Signatories include BMA Cymru Wales, RCN Wales, Age Cymru, Carers Wales, Llais, the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Pharmacy, Marie Curie Cymru and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Wales.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine told the minister that corridor care is taking place in every emergency department in Wales, with patients receiving treatment on trolleys or chairs in corridors, car parks and other areas where life-saving equipment is not available.
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB), which covers Flintshire and the rest of north Wales and is currently in special measures, runs emergency departments at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, Wrexham Maelor and Ysbyty Gwynedd.
The organisations are asking the Welsh Government to publish a national definition of corridor care, begin collecting and publishing data on how often it occurs, monitor it as a patient safety measure within health board governance, and require each health board to produce a local plan to eliminate it.
The letter points out that NHS England adopted a formal definition of corridor care in March 2026 and began publishing national data on its scale and frequency this month.
Wales has no published definition and no routine reporting of figures.
Dr Iona Collins, chair of BMA Welsh Council, said:
“In our hospitals, corridor care is normalised. Wales is lagging behind England in failing to eradicate this dangerous practice from our hospitals.”
Dr Collins, who made the comments while addressing the BMA’s Annual Representatives Meeting in Brighton, said:
“Vulnerable patients are being denied the privacy, dignity and care they deserve, while staff are left trying to deliver safe treatment without the space, equipment or support they need.”
She said the practice places healthcare professionals in “an impossible position: expected to provide safe care in conditions that make safe care harder and often impossible to deliver.”
The letter notes that BMA Cymru Wales and RCN Wales ran a joint Senedd petition on corridor care which gathered more than 10,000 signatures, followed by a Senedd debate in December 2025.
The organisations say no meaningful action has followed.
The letter asks the minister to make a clear public commitment on all four points ahead of the summer recess.
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