Age UK Says Ministers Must Set A Date

Today (October 31) Age UK launches ‘The Longest Wait - Our A&E Crisis Demands an Emergency Response’; a new report which lays bare the devastating impact that ‘Corridor Care’ and long A&E waits can have on older people. The Charity says that it’s a crisis hiding in plain sight in our hospitals and that Ministers need to act urgently to tackle it.  

And while long waits and corridor care in overly busy A&E departments and happen to people of all ages they are particularly likely to happen to older people, especially the oldest old, including some who are extremely ill or even dying the report says.

The new report shows that:
• 1 in 3 (one third or 32%) of those aged 90 and older are waiting 12 hours or more in A&E to be admitted or discharged home in 2024/25.
• The number of instances of ‘corridor care’ of 12 hours or more has increased 525-fold since 2015/16.
• Between 2019/20 and 2024/25 the number of attendances to A&E that resulted in a 12-hour wait for a bed increased by nearly 2000%.
• Last year, 532,451 people experienced corridor care of 12 hours or more

Age UK said it has heard heartbreaking stories from older people who have had to face treatment, tests, and life-changing news without privacy and in unsafe conditions. Some have told us they have suffered the indignity of having to use bedpans in corridors, or of lying on the floor because the chair provided was too uncomfortable. Tragically, some older people die before making it to a ward.

A recent Age UK survey revealed that a third of Age UK supporters said they would be less likely to go to hospital because of the corridor care crisis, and 53% said that they would feel more anxious if they found themselves there.

Recent polling of UK people aged 65+ by Age UK revealed that:
• 89%, equivalent to 11.7 million older people, agreed that corridor care is undignified and unsafe, particularly for older people.
• 79%, equivalent to 10.4 million older people, agreed that patients should never be cared for in corridors under any circumstances.

Staffing

Long A&E waits and corridor care affect staff too. The Royal College of Nursing’s (RCN) 2025 ‘On the Frontline of the UK’s Corridor Care Crisis’ report, surveying nursing staff across the UK, found that Corridor Care is a significant feature of many staff’s daily experience: two thirds (67%) of the respondents said that they deliver care in an inappropriate setting every day. This is affecting their ability to care for people and is leaving them demoralised and distressed.

Among the A&E nurses who responded to the RCN’s survey, 91% said that patient care and safety is being compromised.

The problem the report highlights usually stems in large part from the hospital’s inability to process people quickly once they’re through the door. On any given day, there are 13,000 people medically fit for discharge stuck in hospitals in our country, almost all of them aged 65 plus.

These delayed discharges can happen for a number of different reasons, and the following areas need to be addressed to speed up the flow in hospitals: 
• Poor organisation and co-ordination of functions and activities within the hospital
• A lack of social care and other forms of support in the community
• Delays in accessing community health services such as District Nurses and Occupational Therapists.

Caroline Abrahams CBE, Age UK Charity Director, said: “What’s happening to some very ill older people when they come to A&E is a crisis hiding in plain sight which the Government must face up to and take immediate action to resolve. No one should have to spend their final days in a hospital corridor where it’s impossible for the staff to provide good, compassionate care, and it’s truly shocking that this is what is happening to some very old people in some hospitals, today and every day. And as we head into winter, we fear that an already very difficult situation in and around some A&Es will get even worse.

“Many of the stories we have heard from older people and their families are heart-breaking and, to make it worse, the older you are, the more likely you are it seems to endure a lengthy and often uncomfortable wait. Corridor care and long A& E waits are like a rot eating away the heart of the NHS, undermining public trust and destroying the ability of committed hospital staff to be able to take pride in a job well done. As a result, we fear that poor quality care in and around some A&E departments is now almost expected – a truly dire situation we must act urgently to turn around.

“The good news is that these problems can be tackled and solved – some hospitals have the problem of long waits and corridor care under control. There’s a lot that hospitals themselves can do to improve the situation in their A&Es, but what’s most needed now is for Government to step up, show determined leadership and use all the levers at its disposal – including targets, inspection and funding – to bring this crisis, which is disproportionately hurting our oldest old, to an end.”  
  
Calls on Government

To restore a sense of decency, and to give older people the dignity and respect they deserve, Age UK calls for the Government to implement a package of measures now:  

• Urgently produce a funded operational plan to reduce the incidence of long A&E waits and end Corridor Care, with specific deadlines and milestones. 
• Establish a robust system to collect and publish regular data on corridor care (as well as long A&E waits), and their impacts on the public, including by age and ethnicity.  
• Appoint a Minister in the Department of Health and Social Care to be accountable for reducing long A&E waits and ending corridor care and require them to report on progress to Parliament every six months.  
• Turbo-charge a peer learning programme for hospitals and local health organisations (Integrated Care Boards) to share proven solutions, tackle barriers to discharge and protect and support NHS staff.  
• Work at pace to implement the 10 Year Health Plan, especially the ‘hospital to home’ shift and creation of a Neighbourhood Health Service, ensuring social care and the VCSFE are fully played in – so fewer older people need to come to A&E in the first place.