CORRIDOR care is an “everyday reality” rather than a winter pressure, doctors warned today, as new research shows three in five have treated patients in temporary spaces such as cupboards this summer.

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) survey of 553 doctors found that 59 per cent had provided care in unsuitable spaces between June and August. 

Of the 328 who had done so, 72 per cent said they felt forced, while 45 per cent reported it happening daily or almost daily. Two-thirds said it now feels like “the new norm.”

Nearly all respondents said patient privacy and dignity were compromised, 84 per cent believed confidentiality was at risk, and 8 per cent had considered leaving their role because of the experience.

RCP clinical vice-president Dr Hilary Williams said: “Delivering care in corridors and other temporary spaces has sadly become an everyday reality for many doctors, placing immense physical and emotional strain on staff.

“Patients deserve better. They should receive care in safe, private, and properly equipped environments.

“Lasting change requires urgent systemic action. Strengthening social care, improving patient flow, and expanding alternatives to hospital admission within the community, such as hospital-at-home programmes, are essential.”

One medic described treating patients — including one with a brain abscess — in front of a vending machine as “a new low.”

Another said the conditions had made them consider early retirement.

RCP Patient and Carer Network chairwoman Sam Mauger warned that corridor care “is a symptom of deeper problems — chronic underinvestment, lack of capacity, and slow progress on social care reform.”

“Patients want solutions, not excuses,” she said. 

Psychotherapist and Frontline19 CEO Claire Goodwin-Fee said it was not “just patient dignity that’s being stripped away, it’s the wellbeing of the very people holding the system together.”

She said the organisation sees the toll of this as “moral injury, burnout, and despair among NHS staff who feel forced to work in conditions that betray the standards they were trained to uphold.”

“Corridor care isn’t just a symptom of system failure, it’s a warning signal that our workforce is at breaking point,” she warned.

Rory Deighton of the NHS Confederation said the findings “paint a deeply worrying picture,” claiming privatisation to build new NHS facilities would help.

Dr John Puntis, Keep Our NHS Public co-chair, said: “The Royal College of Nursing report on corridor care in January this year laid bare the devastating impact on both patients and staff. The current report from the RCP suggests that little has changed and with winter pressures building, things are likely to get worse. Government must turn its attention from non-urgent care and ‘radical reform’ of the NHS to focus on measures that will increase hospital capacity in terms of both beds and staff. There is also an urgent need to deliver improvements in community and social care to improve patient flow through the system.”

The Department of Health and Social Care said it was “working at pace to turn around more than a decade of neglect.”