On behalf of the UK NHS ambulance sector, Anna Parry, Managing Director of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) has welcomed the letter issued on 04 March by NHS England to all trust chief executives and chairs, setting out a renewed national focus on eliminating corridor care.
While the letter does not reference the related issue of so‑called “car park care”, this is something AACE has raised over many years with NHS England and Department of Health and Social Care colleagues, and strongly supports efforts to eradicate both practices.
Says Anna:
Both hospital handover delays and corridor care are unacceptable for patients and clinicians, and with the right leadership ambition, culture and system‑wide collaboration, both can and should be eliminated.
For ambulance services, corridor care and handover delays are not isolated issues; they are symptoms of a wider challenge in patient flow. It is imperative that flow is considered in its entirety, rather than in artificial silos where delays are simply displaced from one part of the patient journey to another.
The risks do not disappear when they move from the emergency department to a corridor, or from a corridor to the back of an ambulance. They are merely redistributed.
In February, together with the Royal College of Paramedics, AACE wrote to NHS England to highlight several themes that must underpin any sustainable solution.
Anna continues:
“First among these is consistent, visible executive‑level leadership. Our case studies [see https://aace.org.uk/hospital-handovers/] show repeatedly that where senior leaders adopt a patient‑centred approach, set clear expectations, and take personal ownership of flow and risk, improvements follow. The most successful organisations demonstrate a culture in which handover delays and corridor or car park care are simply not tolerated.
“Equally important is genuine partnership working. Improvements are most durable where relationships between ambulance services, acute providers, community teams and local authorities are built on trust, shared decision‑making and a mature approach to shared risk. During periods of extreme pressure, these relationships can become transactional; restoring and protecting true collaboration is essential if progress is to be sustained.
We also see significant opportunity to expand the role of paramedics and community‑based clinicians in supporting rapid movement of care, reducing avoidable conveyance, and ensuring patients receive the right care in the right place.
This requires consistent access to alternatives to the emergency department, shared clinical governance, and a system‑wide appetite to manage risk collectively, rather than transfer it between organisations.
“Finally, the evidence is clear that whole‑hospital responses are vital. Systems that have reduced delays do so through senior‑led flow meetings, proactive specialty engagement, strong links with Same Day Emergency Care, and a relentless focus on discharge.
“As we stated in our letter to NHS England, we are not naïve about the scale of the challenge, nor the pressures facing NHS leaders. But we have seen that improvement is possible, even in the most pressured systems. What matters most is shared ownership, consistent leadership, and a commitment to addressing risk wherever it sits – including the often unseen and unmanaged risk in the community.”
