NHS Corridor Care

Andy MacNae Excerpts

Wednesday 8th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Andy MacNae (Rossendale and Darwen) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting (Dr Allin-Khan) for securing this debate and all my esteemed colleagues for covering the issue so brilliantly and with such expertise. You will be glad to hear, Madam Deputy Speaker, that that allows me to be brief and to focus on Blackburn A&E.

Blackburn A&E is one of the busiest in the country, serving east Lancashire. It has been one of the starkest examples of corridor care, and I could tell so many stories of constituents suffering the indignities and poor care that are the inevitable consequence of that. There is the 70-year-old lady with spinal cancer who was stuck there for 72 hours; the young woman who was a historical sexual assault victim, physically shaking with fear at being left in a corridor surrounded by men; or the 90-year-old with dementia and double incontinence, reliant on her daughter to change and clean her, and desperate for privacy, comfort and reassurance. I too have been there, unable to walk after a fall, for 13 hours overnight in a corridor that felt like a war zone, next to an old lady who was in constant pain, fearful and alone, crying out for her family—just one voice among many.

Corridor care is at best undignified and at worst heartless, heartbreaking and cruel. Its normalisation is a scandal and is one of the starkest examples of a health system failed and broken by Tory austerity. We must end it, and I am pleased to say that in Blackburn we are finally seeing progress.

[Liam Conlon (Beckenham and Penge) (Lab)]

We talk about getting people out of hospital, but it is also about keeping them out of there. I spent years in and out of hospital as a teenager; I was one of the youngest people in Britain to have a hip replacement when I was in sixth form. The rehabilitation services that I relied on at the Royal London hospital were sadly closed by the last Government. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important that we invest in those services for them to reopen, so that when people leave hospital, they stay out of hospital?

[Andy MacNae]

The investment in prevention and in repairing the massive damage done by the previous Government to our valued health system is crucial and fundamental.

We are finally seeing progress in Blackburn, and that is because of additional resources and support from NHS England and the Government’s getting it right first time initiative. East Lancashire Hospitals NHS trust and the leadership must be praised for that. They have been working hard and with real focus to address the underlying drivers of corridor care, such as safe and timely discharge, and the presence of senior clinicians. This is not about quick fixes but about looking to end the practice for good. So far, waits of 12 hours-plus have reduced by 18%. That means there is a long way to go, and myself and fellow east Lancashire MPs are working with the trust both to challenge progress and to argue for the resources needed to do the job.

[Mr Adnan Hussain (Blackburn) (Ind)]

The hon. Member and I share the same local authority and all our constituents are affected by the corridor care crisis at the Royal Blackburn hospital, which ranks seventh for A&E corridor care and fifth for ward corridor care, despite the management and the executive team working extremely hard. Does he agree that for places such as Blackburn with Darwen, which have the highest levels of deprivation and health inequalities, one solution is to have a targeted needs-based funding system?

[Andy MacNae]

The crucial thing is that we recognise the scale of the challenge and work together to solve it. This needs to be a shared mission on behalf of our residents, our friends and our families. In a year’s time, I intend to be standing here after we have together ended corridor care in Blackburn A&E for good, and I hope the Minister and the Department of Health continue to share this commitment. This is a moral imperative, and together we must deliver the care and dignity that our residents deserve.