NHS winter warning as more than 3,500 people a day treated in corridor

Résumé détaillé

Health Secretary Yvette Cooper warned pressures on the NHS 'will increase' going into winter after new hospital figures showed a record busy autumn in A&E and waiting lists on the rise

Warnings have been issued for this winter after over 3,500 patients were treated in NHS hospital corridors each day in the health service’s busiest ever autumn.

Record numbers attended A&E departments in October - with figures showing the NHS is already facing growing pressures before the busy winter season arrives.

The latest performance data from NHS England shows an average of 3,558 patients received corridor care each day in October, with 2,718 in A&E departments and 840 in other hospital areas.

This is up from a revised average of 3,310 patients a day in September, and the highest since figures for corridor care started being collected earlier this year.

Labour began collecting the figures in May in a bid to stamp out corridor care after NHS workers told of soaring cases under the previous Tory government.

It is defined as a patient spending at least 45 minutes in a clinically inappropriate area of an emergency department.

One harrowing recent example saw an 81-year-old woman with terminal cancer left lying on plastic chairs in an A&E storeroom for 48 hours.

Pam Smith, who has stage 4 cancer, went into Royal Gwent Hospital in south Wales suffering from a fever after undergoing chemotherapy - but was told staff could not find a bed for her.

The waiting list for hospital treatment has also risen to 7.38 million - its highest level in nearly a year.

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