Nursing union warns Wales still failing on corridor care
One year after the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) published its landmark report on corridor care, the union says patients and staff in Wales continue to be put at risk by unsafe and undignified conditions.
New UK-wide polling by YouGov, commissioned by the RCN, found that nearly one in five adults (18%) across the UK have witnessed care being delivered in non-medical spaces such as corridors in the past six months.
In Wales, that figure rises to more than one in four (28%). When looking only at people who accessed NHS care in Wales for themselves or a loved one, more than half (58%) said they had experienced or witnessed care being delivered in corridors or other inappropriate areas.
The RCN says these findings reflect what nursing staff in Wales have long been reporting. A 2025 survey of RCN Wales members working in NHS hospitals found that almost two-thirds (61.8%) said corridor care was a problem where they worked.
One nurse working on a mental health ward described corridor care as a “regular occurrence”, warning that staff are forced to deliver care in unsafe environments that increase the risk of self-harm and suicide.
A frontline nurse responding to the RCN survey said:
“Emergency departments are no longer able to function and we are causing harm to patients. Corridor care must stop.”
RCN Wales Associate Director of Nursing (Employment Relations) Nicky Hughes said: “Corridor care is not an inevitable consequence of winter pressures or staff shortages – it’s a symptom of a system that has been allowed to drift into crisis. Our members told us clearly last year that corridor care had become widespread and entrenched in NHS Wales, and the latest UK-wide polling shows that nothing has improved.”
“Nursing staff are doing everything they can, but they cannot deliver safe and dignified care in corridors, waiting rooms or storage spaces. Patients deserve better, and so do the professionals who care for them.”
“Over the past year, RCN Wales has led the way in exposing the reality of corridor care and demanding action. We’ve set out the solutions, built alliances and ensured this issue cannot be ignored. Now we need the Welsh Government and NHS Wales to act with urgency and transparency to end corridor care in Wales once and for all.”
“The RCN is reiterating its call for a fully funded and credible plan to eliminate corridor care, including urgent investment in inpatient beds, the nursing workforce, community services and social care, to prevent patients being left without safe and appropriate treatment.”
During a Senedd debate on Wednesday (10 December), Health Secretary Jeremy Miles acknowledged that corridor care “compromises patient dignity and staff wellbeing”, but said the issue could not be solved by simply labelling it a “never event”.
He said: “The delivery of care in undesignated or non-clinical environments doesn’t meet the criteria due to the complexity of underlying causes.”
Mr Miles added that while the Welsh Government does not endorse routine care in non-clinical environments, eliminating it will require wide-ranging reform.
“We do not endorse routine care in non-clinical environments. Our goal is to eliminate this practice through system-wide reform,” he told Members.
“Eradicating care in undesignated or non-clinical environments will not be a simple, quick fix. It requires coordinated action across health and social care.”
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