More than half of Emergency Department Clinical Leads in England who responded to a survey by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) said their A&E was unsafe for patients.
It comes as RCEM’s President, Dr Ian Higginson, has appeared in parliament today (11 March 2026), in front of the Health and Social Care Committee, to talk about the state of corridor care in England.
Dr Higginson has given oral evidence in front of the cross-party group in Westminster alongside RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, and Interim Chief Executive at Health Services Safety Investigation Board (HSSIB), Dr Rosie Bennyworth.
Following the session, the committee will also hear evidence from healthcare leaders within NHS England, as well as the Minister of State for Health (Secondary Care), Karin Smyth MP.
RCEM conducted the snap survey between 2-3 March, asking department Clinical Leads – who are doctors responsible for patient safety in A&Es – a series of questions aimed at capturing a snapshot of the current state of overcrowding, staffing levels and sustainability of working for staff in their departments.
In total, representatives from 80 EDs across England responded to this short notice survey.
The results revealed:
51% of respondents said their ED was fairly or very unsafe, compared with just 28% who said their ED was very or fairly safe
88% of respondents said overcrowding was a daily occurrence, with 96% saying it occurred at least several days a week
66% said the W45 policy (which mandates ambulance crews wait at ED for a maximum of 45 minutes before leaving the patient) had improved ambulance handover times but at the expense of making crowding worse and increasing the use of temporary care environments. A further 11% said it made crowding worse without affecting ambulance handover times.
The majority of respondents said that their ED was moderately understaffed (59%) while 30% said that it was severely or dangerously understaffed
96% said that working was unsustainable for staff in the long term in their department. Despite this 43% of departments reported financial or other blocks to recruitment of senior emergency doctors.
99% of respondents felt that the government wasn’t taking the right actions to fix the problems (61% said that government did not understand the problems and were not taking the right action. 38% said they understand the problem but despite this were still not taking the right action).
Free text responses also revealed how Clinical Leads are feeling, with one stating the current conditions are “soul-destroying” for staff, another said “the working conditions are inhumane…morale is non-existent”, while someone else said “there are increased numbers of nurses crying after shifts”.
Dr Ian Higginson, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said: “The sole purpose of Emergency Departments is to provide safe emergency care to people in their moment of need.
“Yet, those working within them, are telling us the opposite. Look at the results of the survey – they paint an incredibly alarming picture. The majority of Clinical Leads who responded have raised a red flag, voicing their concern about how unsafe EDs are for patients due to the overcrowding and understaffing that face them.
“It’s disheartening, as an Emergency Medicine Clinician, knowing that you will be treating sick and vulnerable patients, on trolleys in corridors, or chairs in other inappropriate spaces, while you put on your scrubs at the start of your shift. It’s not the level of care we want to be providing at all.
“So called ‘corridor care’ is the visible symptom of the system not working as it should. Our patients are enduring incredibly long waits on trolleys in areas that weren’t designed for clinical care, because there’s no bed available for them on an in-patient ward. It means our patients become stuck in the department, as more people come through our doors.
“Directing people away from A&E isn’t the sole answer to this issue. Attendance avoidance measures will do little to nothing to help an 85-year-old who has broken her hip, or who is acutely confused due to an infection, waiting to get into an inpatient bed.
“What will help is a sustained political and health focus on the ‘back door’ of our departments – getting hospitals working properly, including into the evenings and over weekends, making sure there are enough staffed beds, and getting patients home when they are well enough and able to do so. This will take determined leadership, and investment in the right things.
“Today, I bring the voice and experiences of our members, their colleagues and our patients to the Health and Social Care Committee. And this evidence must be turned into meaningful action to tackle the crisis in emergency care.”
