The RCP has updated its guidance to support physicians delivering inpatient care in both permanent and temporary environments, recognising that corridor care is now a reality for many frontline clinicians.
In the UK, patients are receiving care in spaces not designed, equipped, or staffed for clinical care – such as corridors, waiting rooms, converted offices, and even storage areas. These spaces often lack essential equipment to monitor patient deterioration, access to necessary medications, or privacy screens for conducting examinations.
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) uses the term ‘temporary care environments’ to describe these spaces. They are unsafe and unacceptable.
No patient should be treated in a space that compromises their privacy, dignity, or access to safe clinical care. Yet across the NHS, clinicians are being forced to deliver this form of care.
The RCP has undertaken two snapshot surveys throughout 2025 on members’ experiences of corridor care. A survey in February found that nearly 4 in 5 (78%) doctors had provided care in a temporary environment in the previous month (961 respondents). A survey conducted in September confirms this challenge persists beyond the winter months, with 3 in 5 (59%) of doctors reporting they provided care in temporary settings over the summer (553 respondents).
The RCP is clear that corridor care is unsafe and unacceptable, but until corridor care is eliminated, staff need support to protect patients and safeguard their wellbeing in these environments.
The RCP’s updated clinical guidance for physicians sets out standards for inpatient care that must be always upheld – regardless of whether care is being provided in a temporary or permanent space. These standards – intended to complement NHS England’s guidance – aim to help physicians deliver inpatient care that is:
- safe and dignified where every patient has a named consultation, regular monitoring, rapid access to medication and equipment, with privacy, dignity, nutrition, toileting and hygiene needs always met
- clearly communicated so patients and families are kept informed, and staff have immediate access to patient information, records, and incident systems, supported by regular debriefs
- efficient and collaborative with multi-professional teams working across departments to prioritise the sickest patients, enable safe discharge or transfer, and maintain patient flow using structured, evidence-based assessments.
It also sets out recommendations for providers to take active steps to protect staff wellbeing – particularly for those consistently working in temporary environments – and reduce avoidable hospital admissions by promoting vaccine uptake and making full use of community-based urgent care pathways.
These standards are not a long-term solution to corridor care, but a necessary step to safeguard patients and support clinicians in the current reality.
The RCP will continue its campaign for government and the NHS to take action to eliminate corridor care. It has today renewed calls on the NHS, HSCNI and governments across the four nations of the UK to:
- protect patients and staff by supporting them when care is delivered in temporary care environments
- prevent this practice by implementing systems and processes to improve patient flow and discharge
- pledge long term investment in social care and public health initiatives to tackle avoidable admissions and improve health
- publish data all year round on how many patients are being treated in temporary care environments.
Get in touch
If you are a physician and would like to share further experiences of temporary care environments, or if you’re encountering new challenges in delivering inpatient care, we welcome your insights. Please get in touch by emailing policy@rcp.ac.uk.