It’s another single case plucked out by grubby figures, taking advantage of a distressed family and platformed, front page, by a newspaper little better than a Labour party election leaflet.
Explicit figures are not published anywhere but there’s a good proxy for corridor care and that’s 12 hour waits in A&E. By definition if you’re waiting 12 hours after triage assessment and maybe some treatment before getting a bed, that is ‘corridor care.’ A fuller AI rationale for the use of 12 hour waits, based heavily on the views of the Royal College of Medicine, Age Concern and even NHS England itself, is below.
In October 2025, 7 362 patients waited more than 12 hours.
Comparison is also compromised by NHS England’s dishonest measure from ‘decision to admit‘, then restarting the clock, compared to NHS Scotland’s measure from ‘first arrival‘ in A&E reception, but one set of data – A&E 12 hour performance summary – seems comparable with the Scottish data.
The figure for October 2025 is 161 944, pro rata more than twice the level in NHS Scotland.
Further, the discussion of methods below points to: In England, the key metric is 12 hours from decision to admit (most precise for corridor care). In Scotland (and sometimes advocated UK-wide), it’s often 12 hours from arrival, which includes initial assessment time and may overestimate pure corridor waits.
Methods:
Why 12-Hour A&E Waits Are a Good Proxy for Corridor Care
Corridor care (also called trolley waits or care in temporary escalation spaces) occurs when emergency departments (EDs) are overcrowded due to a lack of inpatient beds, forcing patients who need admission to be treated in non-clinical areas like corridors, waiting rooms, or chairs. This is unsafe, undignified, and linked to patient harm.The most accurate proxy in NHS data—particularly in England—is the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours from the decision to admit (DTA) to actual admission (known as “12-hour trolley waits” or “12-hour DTA waits”). Here’s why this metric strongly indicates corridor care:
- Direct Link to Bed Availability Delays
Once a clinician decides a patient needs admission (DTA), the wait is almost entirely due to no available ward bed. Patients remain in the ED, often on trolleys in corridors or other overflow areas, receiving ongoing care there. Short DTA waits mean quick transfers to proper wards; prolonged waits (especially >12 hours) mean patients are stuck in unsuitable ED spaces. - Official and Expert Recognition
- NHS England and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) explicitly link these waits to corridor care. For example, NHS spokespeople have stated: “It is totally unacceptable that patients are waiting over 12 hours to be admitted to a hospital bed, and in some cases, this wait is occurring in corridors.”
- The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) describes 12-hour waits as “the clearest indicator of corridor care taking place,” since staff cannot move admitted patients to wards.
- Age UK and Liberal Democrat analyses equate 12-hour trolley waits directly with corridor care experiences.
- No Direct National Tracking of Corridor Care
The NHS does not routinely publish data on the exact number of patients treated in corridors (though some site-specific or survey data exists). In its absence, 12-hour DTA waits serve as the best available quantitative proxy, capturing the severity of exit block (delayed transfers out of ED). - Evidence of Harm and Scale
RCEM research shows long waits (8–12 hours and beyond) are associated with excess mortality (e.g., one additional death per 72 patients waiting 8–12 hours). These waits overwhelmingly occur in corridor-like settings during overcrowding.
Note on Variations in Measurement
- In England, the key metric is 12 hours from DTA (most precise for corridor care).
- In Scotland (and sometimes advocated UK-wide), it’s often 12 hours from arrival, which includes initial assessment time and may overestimate pure corridor waits.
Both are used as proxies, but DTA is more specific to the bed-delay phase where corridor care predominates.
In summary, 12-hour waits (especially DTA) reliably signal when ED overcrowding forces care into corridors, making them a vital—though imperfect—measure of this systemic issue. Experts like RCEM presidents call it a “national shame” and urge its elimination through better bed capacity and flow.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
The Daily Rancid is really Labouring to pull out the stops to support the failing career of Scotland’s Ambulance Chaser Supreme , Sarwar !
It completely ignores the Good News that the Scottish Government and BMA have avoided any Doctors’ strikes – unlike the English NHS and its Bete Noire , Wes Streeting .
Any reader ( ? ) of this Penny Dreadful must be unable to afford toilet paper and has resorted to this as an alternative .
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Not sure how but I now get emails from ‘organise’ a Uk activist thingy, anyway they campaign re services and by all accounts the English NHS is all but finished, dismantled, and sold off bit by bit via wes Streeting who of course takes $’s does he not, from US healthcare corporations.
Scotland, your NHS is in great peril should any Britnat England HQ’d party(s) take control of your parliament again…
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Aye, cast your eyes over Ruth Suter’s record on Muckrack, with the Wrecker 4 years apparently, a journalist apparently, and this https://archive.ph/crtkB is what what she produces as news apparently.
Now scroll down to the 5th paragraph and see “cirrhosis of the liver” and ask any paramedic you might know how someone doing triage at A&E might possibly diagnose an urgent case of advanced cirrhosis in a 28 year old ?
Answers on a postage stamp to Ruth Suter, Oban.
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Would any ‘normal’ person deny the correctness of the Daily Record headline? Taken at face value, is the example given deeply regrettable? Of course it is. Is it representative? From all the available NHS Scotland performance data and information from friends and family about NHS Scotland’s hospitals, I’m sure it isn’t! Are such regrettable outcomes wholly, always avoidable in a healthcare system?
In most, perhaps all, complex systems – and the healthcare system including emergency care is certainly one – there will be a spread of outcomes, including ones – much rarer ones – at either end of a distribution. The use here of a ‘salient exemplar’ – if given without context, without perspective – has the potential to deceive. Given the nature of the source publication, in this case might that be its intent?
An example of cherry-picking? – salient exemplars may be selectively chosen to create a misleading narrative e.g. showcasing an exceptional case can exaggerate the perceived success or failure of a broader set. The mainstream media in Scotland almost exclusively focus on ‘failure’.
Is context ignored? – when salient exemplars are used without the context of average or general performance, they can mislead the public into drawing inaccurate conclusions about a larger group or trend.
Are peer comparisons made? – based on practice elsewhere, are degrees of success or failure – and the average or general performance – in NHS Scotland significantly better or worse than for similar systems elsewhere?
My AI resource tells me: ‘While salient exemplars can be powerful tools for illustrating critical points in political discourse, their effectiveness hinges on their context and the intent behind their selection. When used deceptively, they can misrepresent reality, while representative exemplars can enrich discussions and provide clarity.’ (my emphasis)
‘Effectiveness hinges on their context and the intent behind their selection’: indeed! In the context of this specific newspaper’s common practices, might ‘effectiveness’ be judged on the likely electoral impact this year of a deliberate attempt at deception and misrepresentation in the terms the AI source describes?
In ‘normal’ national media environments, one such example in the Daily Record may not be too significant but it is well evidenced here on TuS that typical mainstream media practice in Scotland is to shun the reporting of context, avoid the provision of perspective and use comparative performance analyses sparingly and usually only where a negative about Scotland can be shown. It is because of this prevailing media context that information-poor voters seeing this Daily Record headline may be more likely to be taken in.
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