The Plan to Stop Hospital "Corridor Care": Lib Dems Promise No More 12-Hour Waits

The Liberal Democrats have unveiled a bold £1.5 billion rescue plan to eliminate the "deadly corridor crisis" in England’s hospitals, pledging to enshrine a new legal right for patients to be seen in A&E within 12 hours.

​As the NHS faces a winter of record-breaking delays, party leader Sir Ed Davey warned that the current state of emergency care is a "national scandal" that has left patients dying in undignified conditions.

​The Plan to End the Corridor Crisis
​The Liberal Democrats’ proposal focuses on a "front door and back door" approach to fix the broken system. By investing £1.5 billion, the party aims to make 6,000 extra hospital beds available by the end of the year.

​Key pillars of the policy include:

​A Legal Right to Care: Enshrining a 12-hour maximum wait in the NHS Constitution, creating a statutory duty for the Health Secretary to deliver.

​Social Care Surge: Reserving care home places and funding "step-down" care packages to ensure patients medically fit for discharge can leave hospital safely.

​The "Trump Tax" Scrap: Funding the plan by cancelling a controversial UK-US pharmaceutical deal that forces the NHS to pay billions more for branded medicines.

​"Never again should anyone have to watch their loved one die on a trolley in a hospital corridor. This deadly corridor crisis isn't befitting of the heroic doctors and nurses who work in our NHS. It is a policy failure that we can, and must, fix within a year." Ed Davey MP 

​Nursing Leaders Demand Action
​The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has backed the call for urgent investment, having previously declared a national emergency over "corridor care." Nursing leaders highlighted that 12-hour waits have skyrocketed nearly 9,000% since 2019.  

​"The corridor crisis that continues to engulf our hospitals puts patients and staff at risk... To consign corridor care to history where it belongs, we need ministers to boost capacity at the front door and social care at the back door."  ​Lynn Woolsey, RCN Chief Nursing Officer.

​In a speech in London, Sir Ed Davey argued that the failure of both the Conservatives and Labour to fix the NHS has opened the door for "populists and extremists." He specifically took aim at the Government’s pharmaceutical concessions to the US administration, calling it a "surrender" that drains vital frontline funds.

​"The Government should finally stand up to Trump, reject his demands, and invest that money in hospitals and care. If we can't fix this crisis, the populists will thrive on the disillusionment." Ed Davey MP 

​Take Action
​The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to adopt these emergency measures immediately to save lives this winter.  

​Sign the Petition: Help us end the 12-hour wait scandal at www.libdems.org.uk/12hours

Read the Policy: Getting Emergency Care Back on Track 

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