‘I nearly died after spending nine hours in a hospital corridor’

A woman claims she “nearly died” after spending nine hours in agony on a hospital corridor waiting to be treated for her chronic condition.

Joanna Oliver, who has Chron’s disease, recalls feeling like she was going to die when she experienced a blockage in her stoma — a potentially life-threatening complication if left untreated.

The 51-year-old from Essex went to A&E at Basildon Hospital in Essex in July 2025 when she felt discomfort and cramps, but she was forced to wait all night to be treated.

“I was in the corridor, waiting for a scan, surrounded by drunk people and families. Because of the pain and the morphine, I wet myself. They gave me a urinary catheter in the corridor,” she told The Independent.

She added that her bed linen wasn’t changed and she wasn’t seen by a doctor until 6am, when her complication was treated.

But Ms Oliver isn’t alone; hundreds of thousands patients across the country experience corridor care with long waits without beds, overcrowded spaces and a lack of privacy, every year.

This year cases skyrocketed during the heatwave. An average of 2,300 patients received corridor care in A&E departments in England each day in July, along with 728 patients elsewhere in hospital wards, totalling 3,028.

Health officials said there was a record 2.5 million A&E attendances in July amid the record-breaking heatwaves.

Independent watchdog Healthwatch said more than 280,000 cases of corridor care were recorded over the summer months, including more than 4,200 on 30 June, the hottest day of the year in England.

But experts have suggested the NHS is facing more extremes as signs of winter pressures are already showing with the highest number of ambulance incidents ever recorded for September.

The watchdog is calling for long-term solutions to eradicate corridor care, including reform of social care to ensure people can be discharged more quickly from hospital to at-home support, and free up inpatient beds for people waiting a long time to be admitted from A&E.

Findings gathered by Healthwatch revealed, one patient in Herefordshire had “no beds, just a plastic chair in a corridor all night with little care and other patients vomiting, shouting, screaming and behaving badly all around.”

Another anonymous patient shared their experience with the watchdog and said they had “no aircon in A&E on a very hot day” they added while there were jugs of water available, there were no cups.

One report from a patient revealed a man was given an enema in a corridor with only partial screening. People also said they felt uncomfortable having to urinate behind a screen as everyone else in the corridor could hear what they were doing or being left in soiled clothing for long periods.

“I was in the corridor. No privacy, dignity, food, drink or toileting. Just lying in my own faeces attached to a drip from 1pm to 4 am. No bed still just moved to a cubicle for a few hours before being put on a chair,” one patient said.

Another man described how horrendous it was for the family finding out in a busy corridor that a relative only had weeks to live.

Someone else from Cornwall described finding out another patient had died in the corridor and said: “There’s no privacy in the bays. A lady died next to my daughter and we found out before her family because the doctors were only feet away through this flimsy curtain.”

These pressures are normally seen in the winter months, when illnesses such as flu are rife. But this year record breaking heatwaves “supercharged” the corridor care problem in hospitals, according to the Royal College of Nursing.

Chris McCann, acting chief executive at Healthwatch England said: “People endured conditions that do not belong in a modern NHS. Their experiences evidence the ongoing pressures on hospitals and staff, who find it distressing to have to care for people in this way.

“We know NHS leaders are sending in clinical experts to try and grapple with this problem. But addressing systemic causes will not be quick. As hospitals prepare for this winter, we urge their leaders to take every available step to uphold the dignity and safety of patients.”

The NHS’s top doctor has already warned of “ominous” signs of winter pressure building in hospitals across the country after A&Es and ambulances in England saw a record number of patients in September.

Latest NHS data shows this year saw the busiest September ever for patients attending A&E (2.44 million) and the highest number of ambulance incidents ever recorded for the month of September (806,707).

NHS National Medical Director Professor Frankie Swords said: “The focus is on the looming winter months ahead.

“Staff are already seeing the ominous early signs of pressure, with more patients coming to A&E with flu and other respiratory viruses than usual for this time of year, and unfortunately many people are still waiting longer than we would like them to.”

When asked about Ms Oliver’s case, Louise Crosby, chief nursing officer for Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which overlooks care at Basildon Hospital, said: “We are sorry to hear of Joanne’s experience last year and would ask her to get in touch with us to discuss her concerns.

“We have significantly reduced the number of patients who are receiving care in corridors and want to ensure they are in the right beds, at the right time and receiving the highest quality care.”

An NHS England spokesperson said: “Caring for people in corridors is totally unacceptable, which is why we are taking action to totally eradicate it by sending in a crack team of clinicians to hospitals under the most pressure, while a heat taskforce has been launched to examine the impacts of extreme heat and ensure planning for summer is on the same footing as planning for winter pressures.

“This was an incredibly challenging summer for the NHS with back-to-back extreme heatwaves, record A&E attendances for both June and July, and staff working incredibly hard to continue care in sometimes very difficult circumstances.”