Member's statement: Hospitals: Corridor Care
Member's statement by Mr Colin McGrath on .
- MLA
- Mr Colin McGrath
- Party at the time
- Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Date
- 21 January 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Hospitals: Corridor Care
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4749497
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I will talk about the corridor care that is taking place in hospitals. Unfortunately, the term is increasingly being used and accepted as a relevant form of care. That should cause us major concern. We hear more about corridor care. I understand that a hospital trust in London has advertised for staff specifically to work in corridors: that gives a sense of how widely the issue goes. "Corridor care" means treatment in places other than wards and can include any inappropriate setting such as cars, taxis, visiting rooms, toilets and even storage cupboards. It is not a normal situation when any person who presents at our hospitals faces the indignity, injustice and lack of safety resulting from receiving treatment somewhere other than in a clinical space. The frequency with which this type of care occurs is truly shocking. The Royal College of Nursing has detailed that almost 67% of its membership report that corridor care takes place in our hospitals daily and that 90% feel that patient care has been compromised as a result. That is not just relevant to the safety of those who receive the care in the inappropriate settings; the fact that people are getting treatment in inappropriate settings impacts on the care that takes place in the normal clinical setting of a ward. The impact is also being felt by our nurses and physicians, who feel that they are not offering the best possible care to somebody if they have to deliver it in a cupboard or a corridor. Recently, one physician highlighted that the majority of their time in emergency departments is spent administering care in corridors. That should not be normal practice, and we should not accept it as normal. It is not safe, and it is not fair to our healthcare workers to have to deliver care in that way. Despite all that, we do not know the true extent of corridor care, because it is not recorded. We do not know for a fact how often it takes place. That is why I call on the Department to start recording the figures so that we know exactly what is taking place in our hospitals and do not have to rely on feedback from our doctors, nurses and patients about its extent. The reality is that corridor care has reached crisis point. It is time for the Minister and the Executive to get to work to address the imbalance for the sake of patients, staff and the wider public.
416 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.95).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.95 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.99 |
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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