TL;DR
Turn the school run and nap time into listening time
- Thousands of audiobooks, podcasts and originals
- Listen on your phone, tablet or Echo — also offline
- Cancel anytime
Health Secretary Yvette Cooper has asked the NHS in England to accelerate plans to end corridor care for children and introduce new standards for children’s emergency care. The announcement follows the 2024 death of two-year-old Finlay Roberts, who spent hours in a hospital corridor before being discharged. No deadline for ending the practice for children has been set.
Health Secretary Yvette Cooper has asked the NHS in England to draw up urgent plans to end children being treated in hospital corridors, after two-year-old Finlay Roberts died in 2024 following hours in an A&E corridor before he was discharged. Cooper also said new standards for children’s emergency care would be introduced, with £140 million in funding allocated to 14 urgent-care improvement schemes ahead of winter.
Cooper told the BBC on Sunday that tackling corridor care for children would be a priority. The NHS will be asked to speed up plans to stop children being treated in corridors, and new standards for children’s emergency care are due to be introduced. The NHS will also collect corridor-care figures broken down by patient age for the first time, giving officials a clearer picture of how many children are affected.
The funding is intended to help hospitals prepare for a potentially challenging winter. The 14 schemes will support projects including urgent-care centres, ambulance fleets and emergency-department upgrades. The source report does not specify how much each scheme will receive or give a timetable for the planned standards and data collection.
Finlay’s parents, David and Liz, said he spent hours in an A&E corridor at a north London hospital before he was discharged and died in 2024. His father described the circumstances as a “terrible mess”. The Whittington Health NHS Trust expressed condolences and said exceptional demand can mean patients are cared for in temporary clinical areas, including corridors.
Children’s Emergency Care Under Scrutiny
The announcement addresses the conditions in which some children receive emergency care, not just how long families wait. Corridors are not designed as treatment areas, and the report describes concerns about privacy, dignity and access to appropriate clinical space. Finlay’s family’s account has brought those concerns into focus and prompted a specific commitment to prioritise children.
Age-specific monitoring could help show the scale and distribution of the problem, which has not previously been tracked in this way according to the report. But the measures described are plans, standards and investment—not confirmation that corridor care has already ended or that every hospital can immediately provide a dedicated space. Their effect will depend on implementation and the capacity available across emergency services.
children's emergency care hospital bed
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
From Finlay’s Case to NHS Plans
The government had already committed to ending corridor care for all patients by the end of this parliament. Cooper’s new request puts children among the priorities for accelerating that work. The case of Finlay Roberts has become the immediate reason for the renewed focus: his parents said he was moved from a room with a bed back into a corridor during his hospital visit.
His father told the BBC, “He just clung to me, as we now know, slowly dying.” Liz Roberts recalled being asked to give her son a suppository while they were in the corridor. Cooper apologised to the parents on behalf of the NHS, saying: “No child should be treated in a corridor. No patient should be treated in a corridor.” The trust’s response acknowledged that exceptional demand sometimes leads to patients being placed in temporary clinical areas.
The announcement comes as the NHS prepares for winter demand, when seasonal illnesses such as flu and norovirus can add pressure to emergency services. The source report cites NHS figures showing almost 7.3 million A&E attendances in England between June and August 2026, described there as the highest summer-period total recorded. It also reports warnings from health organisations that extra funding alone will not resolve overcrowding, given staffing shortages and broader system pressures.
““No child should be treated in a corridor. No patient should be treated in a corridor.””
— Yvette Cooper, Health Secretary
Deadline and Delivery Remain Unclear
No date has been set for ending corridor care for children, and the report does not provide a detailed timetable for the new standards, age-based data collection or each funded project. It is also not yet clear how many children are currently treated in corridors, which is one reason the planned data collection matters.
The announcement does not describe how hospitals will meet the proposed changes where staff, beds or suitable clinical space are limited. The Royal College of Nursing’s warning reflects a concern that funding for improvement schemes may not address workforce and system-wide pressures on its own. The source material does not establish whether the planned measures would have changed the care Finlay received.
NHS Plans and Winter Readiness
NHS leaders are expected to draw up the urgent plans requested by Cooper, while the government and NHS work on updated children’s emergency-care standards and age-broken-down corridor-care reporting. The £140 million across 14 schemes is intended to support urgent-care improvements before winter, although the report gives no project-by-project schedule.
For families, the announcement is a commitment to change rather than an immediate guarantee of a dedicated treatment space at every A&E. The next developments to watch are publication of the NHS plans, details and timing for the new standards, and the first age-specific figures. Until those are available, the scale of children’s corridor care and the pace at which it can be reduced remain uncertain.
Key Questions
What has the Health Secretary asked the NHS to do?
Yvette Cooper has asked NHS leaders to draw up urgent plans to accelerate the end of corridor care for children in England. New standards for children’s emergency care are also planned.
Why was the announcement made now?
The announcement followed the 2024 death of two-year-old Finlay Roberts, who spent hours in a north London hospital corridor before being discharged. His parents’ account has renewed attention on the conditions children can face in overcrowded emergency departments.
Has corridor care for children already ended?
No. The source report describes planned action, standards and monitoring, not an immediate change at every hospital. No end date for corridor care for children has been confirmed.
What is the £140 million for?
The funding will support 14 urgent-care improvement schemes across England, including projects involving urgent-care centres, ambulance fleets and emergency-department upgrades. The report does not give a breakdown of the funding or a timetable for each scheme.
Will the NHS start counting how many children receive corridor care?
The NHS is expected to collect corridor-care figures broken down by patient age for the first time. The report does not say when the data collection will begin or when figures will be published.
Source: rss
Fall Picks
fall essentials
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
