In September 2025, William Harvey Hospital in Kent was forced to convert its café into a makeshift A&E ward, screening off tables so patients could be treated while the emergency department overflowed. The trust later apologised and pledged it would “not be allowed to happen again.”

This is not an isolated incident. Corridor care is now routine in many hospitals, with patients treated in unsuitable spaces to relieve pressure on performance targets. In some trusts, patients placed in a corridor bed or chair can be logged as “admitted” to hit the numbers, even if they’re still waiting hours for a staffed ward.

The risks are obvious. Infection control breaks down, vital signs are harder to monitor, and staff are forced to deliver care in conditions that heighten fatigue and moral injury. The CQC and Royal College of Emergency Medicine have repeatedly warned that corridor care undermines patient safety and dignity, yet it continues because hospitals have no staffed capacity to turn to.

No family expects their loved one to be admitted on a trolley in a corridor, or treated in a café. Yet policy choices have made these practices normal. Suppressing flexible staffing hasn’t delivered efficiency; it has delivered indignity, hidden risk, and staff burnout. Patients deserve safe wards, not makeshift beds created to satisfy a spreadsheet.