A study by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has found that one in five A&E patients were treated in hallways, and some of them have to wait for days to get a bed.
The research claims that the “shameful practice of corridor care is endemic” and has become “routine.”
The study conducted by the trainee emergency research network (Tern) of RCEM, and published in the Emergency Medicine Journal, analysed five snapshots taken from 165 A&E departments in March this year.
It found 17.7 percent of patients were receiving care in escalation areas, or any area not routinely used for care.
This included corridors, waiting rooms, doubled-up cubicles, offices, cupboards and ambulances.
The Department of Health and Social Care had earlier said corridor care was unacceptable, undignified and had no place in the NHS.
However, the researchers point out that the escalation area is often used to treat patients.
RCEM president Dr Ian Higginson said it is “worrying” that the snapshots were taken in March, and not during the peak winter.
He fears that this winter “we will see gridlock."
Higginson said long waits in emergency departments put patients' lives at risk.
“For every 72 patients who wait between eight and 12 hours before admission, there is one excess death,” he added.
“This should not be happening in a wealthy country.”
Health secretary Wes Streeting recently promised to end corridor care in hospitals by the next general election “if not sooner”.
An earlier analysis of official data by the Liberal Democrat party had found that between January and October, a record 452,595 people waited more than 12 hours for a bed in A&E following the decision to admit them into hospital.
This was up 34,000 from the same period last year, and an exponential increase from just 1,590 over the same period in 2016.
On the other hand, recent NHS data had highlighted that there were more than 200,000 A&E attendances last winter for minor conditions that could have been dealt with elsewhere.
This included 8,669 attendances for itchy skin, 96,998 for a sore throat and 384 for hiccups.
