NHS corridor care is ‘torture’ leading to patient deaths and staff nightmares

A nurse in the north-west of England said it had become ‘routine’ for 26 patients to be stuck in a corridor awaiting a bed. Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

Corridor care is “a type of torture” that is leading to patients dying and causing NHS staff to have nightmares, the UK’s nurses union has warned.

In one case, an elderly patient choked to death in a corridor, unseen by staff, according to a new dossier of evidence highlighting the problem published by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).