Urgent plan needed to end corridor care for children, health secretary says

The NHS must take urgent action to stop children receiving treatment in hospital corridors, Health Secretary Yvette Cooper has told the BBC.

Cooper told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg she has asked NHS England to draw up urgent plans to eliminate what is known as “corridor care” for children as a priority, and to introduce new standards for how children should be treated at A&E.

It comes after more than a dozen health groups urged the health secretary to take action to end corridor care.

The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments from a decision to admit to actually being admitted stood at 50,582 in September, up from 44,951 in August.

Cooper said the way this data is collected will be changed to have the number of children included in the figures.

“I’m clear that child health needs to be a much greater priority for the NHS,” says Cooper.

The government has an aim of ending corridor care more broadly by the end of this parliament, she added.

Kuenssberg highlighted the case of Finlay Roberts, a two-year-old boy who died in 2024 after spending the final hours of his life in a crowded A&E corridor.

Finlay’s father David Roberts told the BBC the situation was a “terrible mess”, with the family briefly moved into a room with a bed before being moved back into the corridor.

“He just clung to me, as we now know, slowly dying,” he said.

Liz Roberts, Finlay’s mother, said corridor care “robs people of their dignity when they are at their most vulnerable”. She recalled being told to administer a suppository to Finlay in the corridor because there was no other option.

After hearing their story, Cooper apologised to Finlay’s parents on behalf of the NHS.

“No child should be treated in a corridor. No patient should be treated in a corridor,” she said.

The Whittington Health NHS Trust where this happened said they extended their condolences to Finlay’s family.

They said they continue to experience periods of exceptional demand across emergency care and at times some patients may receive care in temporary clinical areas, including corridors.

They said: “Our staff work tirelessly to provide safe and compassionate care in extremely challenging conditions.”

On Friday, 16 health groups – including Age UK, Marie Curie and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) – sent a letter to Cooper, urging her to take action on ending corridor care.

It said the practice is fundamentally incompatible with NHS care standards and it would require “whole-system action” to eradicate it.

Before speaking to Kuenssberg, Cooper had warned the NHS was facing a more challenging winter than normal, after multiple heatwaves led to its busiest summer on record in England.

She announced £140m funding to boost urgent care capacity as part of an effort to deal with the impact of seasonal illnesses, including flu and norovirus.

The money will go towards 14 schemes across England, including new urgent care centres, ambulance fleets and upgrades to emergency departments.

Shadow health secretary Damian Hinds said the government needed to act, but asked it to explain where the money was coming from, while the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) England said the funding was “just another sticking plaster”.

In a statement, Cooper said: “Winter will be more challenging for our NHS this year, after such a heavy summer.

“That’s why we have been preparing early and investing in extra urgent care capacity to help get patients the care they need.”

It comes after almost 7.3 million people attended A&E between June and August in England, according to NHS data, the highest ever figure for a summer period.

Health thinktank the King’s Fund warned that the service was facing a “twin crisis” going into the winter, with little time between peak periods for staff and the system to recover.

NHS leaders are urging eligible people to get flu vaccinations, with medical director Prof Frankie Swords saying there were “ominous” signs of winter pressure already affecting hospitals.

Swords said earlier this month there were more patients coming to A&E with flu and other respiratory viruses than usual for this time of year.

“And unfortunately, people are still waiting longer than we would like them to,” she added.

RCN England’s executive director Patricia Marquis said the extra money was welcome in the short term but would ultimately provide “just another sticking plaster on a system that is at breaking point”.

“The nursing workforce needed to deliver these services goes into winter already running on empty and short of staff,” she said.

The waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England rose for the second month in a row, according to the latest data.

An estimated 7.37 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of August, relating to 6.24 million patients.

These were the highest numbers since October 2025, and have raised questions as to whether the NHS will meet the government’s target to treat 92% of patients within 18 weeks by 2029.