The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the British Medical Association (BMA) in Wales have joined forces to address the alarming state of corridor care in Welsh hospitals and healthcare services. Today (29 April), they launched a joint petition urging the Welsh Government to take immediate action to end the practice of treating patients in corridors, chairs, waiting areas and all other inappropriate areas.
Both unions are asking the public to sign the petition after nurses and doctors have reported being forced to treat patients in inappropriate and undignified environments putting them at risk of significant harm.
Reports from the RCN and members of BMA Cymru Wales are backed up by a recent survey from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine which showed that in the first quarter of 2025, every Accident and Emergency Department in Wales recorded seeing patients in unsafe, inappropriate spaces with almost half of patients waiting for an inpatient bed *
The petition calls on the Welsh Government to take urgent action to
Begin recording and reporting on corridor care in Wales, starting by making it a ‘never event’ for patients to receive care in chairs for more than 24 hours.
Pause reductions in NHS Wales hospital beds. Nationally review capacity and deliver a clear, costed workforce plan to ensure hospitals and wider care settings can meet future demand.
Invest in community-based care by:
increasing the number of District Nurses (and nurses with a community nursing master’s degree) back to, and above, 2010 levels to meet demand.
restoring the proportion of NHS Wales funding in general practice to historic levels, with aspirations to increase, so that we train, recruit and retain enough GPs to move toward the OECD average number of GPs per 1000 people.
Prioritise prevention and early intervention. Sustainable emergency care needs a strong focus on population health and early diagnosis to reduce avoidable crises.
The launch of the petition was prompted by an overwhelming number of testimonies** from doctors and nurses highlighting the dire consequences of corridor care. These include frail, elderly patients waiting days in chairs, patients in waiting areas, corridors and by nursing stations with no privacy resulting in missed diagnoses, delayed treatment, disorientation and deconditioning.
Helen Whyley, Executive Director of RCN Wales said: “We are beyond breaking point. I have travelled across Wales and witnessed people in pain, confused and frightened, with no privacy, no dignity, and no proper care environment.
“Treating patients in corridors and other inappropriate areas is not nursing – it is crisis management in a system that is failing.
“Corridor care is unsafe, undignified, and unacceptable. The Welsh Government must act now-working with health unions and NHS leaders-to implement urgent and meaningful changes.
“Every day that we delay, more patients suffer. Patients deserve better. Nurses deserve better. Wales deserves better.”
Stephen Kelly, chair of the BMA’s Welsh Consultants Committee said:
“When a patient is not placed in a bed space there’s a chance something vital may be missed, there’s no access to monitoring equipment and no privacy to carry out certain procedures.
“This is dangerous and is putting patients' lives at risk, we urge the Welsh Government to work with us to put a stop to this practice.
“We’re extremely concerned that the ‘normalising’ of seeing patients in completely inappropriate spaces will mean that patients come to significant harm which is hugely distressing for patients but also NHS staff.
“This affects everyone in Wales, and we urge people to sign the petition and help us to put an end to corridor care.”
The RCN and the BMA are urging the public to support their petition to end corridor care. By signing the petition, individuals can help pressure the Welsh Government to take urgent steps to ensure that every patient is treated with dignity and given the best chance to survive and recover.
Notes to editors
Notes to editors:
The impact on patients and staff of providing care in corridors and other inappropriate areas. Corridor care: unsafe, undignified, unacceptable
*Source Royal College of Emergency Medicine report 2025 https://rcem.ac.uk/corridor-care-endemic-in-welsh-aes-as-rcem-research-reveals-shocking-reality/
Links to the animation about the campaign
English https://youtu.be/AMpKz6_f2EQ
Welsh https://youtu.be/b44gIlc7ils
Petition link https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/246599
** Here are some of the anonymous testimonies of corridor care from doctors and nurses working in hospitals across Wales:
“I have seen patients where diagnoses have been missed due to inadequate places to examine them”
“Multiple patients with severe injuries to bones are sitting in chairs waiting for beds for 48 to 72 hours in best case scenario”
“I routinely see patients on the back of an ambulance, patients whose treatments are delayed due to no beds or cardiac monitoring spaces”
“I’ve had patients discharge against medical advice as they can’t stand to stay in a chair any longer”
“I routinely look after older people who are not given a bed in a timely fashion. I see pressure area damage from time in chairs and on ambulances”
“there are patients who are damaged by this that never go home because they deteriorate so much during their “corridor care”.
“Patients who are in the waiting room or in the corridor often don't have access to basic facilities such as water, food and toilet access. This is particularly problematic for frail elderly patients or those with dementia”
We regularly have patients on cardiac monitors in chairs in corridors. It’s a regular occurrence for patients to have seizures on chairs
“An elderly gentleman had had a stroke but was placed on a chair in a waiting room where he waited, on a chair, for hours. It was very chaotic. We didn’t have a bed in our area. I speak to colleagues across Wales and we’re all in the same boat.”
“A patient was sat in a waiting room, when they should have been on a bed. They collapsed and died in the waiting room. Unfortunately, this is not something that’s uncommon.”
“We visited [a ward where staff] have to give the senior nurses names of patients on a daily basis that they think are suitable to be moved to a corridor space within the hospital to allow for another patient to come into their area.”
“Community hospitals used a dining area for patient care – these areas have no piped oxygen or suction.”