Ending the Corridor Care Crisis

Yesterday, as Wes Streeting handed in his resignation letter and Labour descended into further infighting, grim new corridor care figures were released.  

So far this year, 220,581 A&E patients have waited over 12 hours after a decision was made to admit them to hospital. Many sat for hours, sometimes days, in plastic chairs or trolleys waiting for a bed to become available. It is the worst figure on record.  

The equivalent period in 2025 saw 20,000 fewer patients face this ordeal, meaning that since Labour took office the number of patients facing degrading trolley waits has increased by over 20%. 

For residents across Newbury and West Berkshire, these stats will only reinforce a relentless reality that many have faced when visiting A&E. Loved ones left without dignity and privacy, treated in cupboards and corridors, while families sit anxiously in overcrowded and distressing waiting rooms.  

Simultaneously, as I’ve heard from NHS staff, pressures are leaving them close to breaking point. Workers crying in cars before they start their shift because they know, despite doing all they can during a gruelling 12-hour shift, they cannot provide every patient with the standard of care they deserve.  

This is the tragic picture Streeting leaves behind. Just two weeks ago, he said corridor care was “not acceptable, it should never be tolerated” and was “determined to end it.” Yet after 22 months in office, we were left with shiny headlines and bold statements, but no clear plan to deliver the bold reform to make that happen.  

Before Labour came to power, the Liberal Democrats were crystal clear that solving this crisis means having the courage to deal with the deepest structural issue in the NHS: social care. At every stage, we have offered to work cross-party to speed up reforms and fundamentally re-wire our NHS with prevention and empowered care workers at its heart. This includes:  

• Giving patients a legal right to see your GP in seven days, or 24 hours if its urgent. 

• Expanding hospital capacity with 6,000 more beds.  

• Boosting step-down care in local communities so people can be discharged more effectively and ease pressure across the system.  

We are incredibly fortunate in Newbury and West Berkshire to have services such as the West Berkshire Community Hospital, alongside primary care providers such as Medwell Chemist and Lambourn Pharmacy who help to save the NHS approximately 38 million GP appointments each year. But as pharmacy provision drops across the country and resources stretch locally, they need proper backing from the government.  

Following the King’s Speech on Wednesday, the NHS Modernisation Bill failed to provide that backing or the scale of change demanded. Without it, bottlenecks across the NHS will only tighten, patients across West Berkshire will continue to face degrading treatment, and exhausted staff will be pushed even closer to burnout while they try to hold together a system that is coming apart at the seams.  

As James Murray now takes the helm, I will continue the bang the drum, so the government grasps the scale of this national emergency and restores dignity for patients and staff across West Berkshire.