The Irish- and British-English phrases corridor care and corridor nursing designate treatment given to hospital patients in overcrowded and inappropriate spaces such as corridors and waiting rooms.

The following explanations, by Denis Campbell, health policy editor, and Robyn Vinter, north of England correspondent, are from The Guardian (London and Manchester, England) of Monday 3^rd June 2024:

Rise in hospital ‘corridor care’ is national emergency, union warns
Royal College of Nursing says overcrowding is forcing practice that puts patients at serious risk

Overcrowding is forcing hospitals to treat so many patients in corridors and storerooms that it constitutes a “national emergency”, the UK’s nursing union has said.
The growing and widespread practice is endangering patients’ safety by leaving them without oxygen or easily able to attract staff’s attention, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned.
“Corridor care” also deprives patients of their dignity because they have to undergo intimate examinations in view of others and do not have easy access to a toilet, it added.
Hospitals become so stretched that some patients have died while being looked after in what the RCN said were “inappropriate areas”, which can also include car parks and fracture rooms.

The earliest occurrences of the phrases corridor care and corridor nursing that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:

1-: From the Western Daily Press (Bristol, England) of Wednesday 9^th January 1980 [Vol. 244, No. 39,346, page 5, column 6]—I have included this quotation, although it is about schools, not hospitals:

Corridor care for schools’ sick pupils
By Ian Bailey

CHILDREN in Gloucestershire schools will have to undergo medical examinations in corridors and cupboards—at least for the immediate future.
Doctor Marion Parkinson told a Gloucestershire Area Health Authority meeting last night that many schools had no special medical facilities.
And it led to examinations being carried out in very poor conditions like corridors and cupboards, said Doctor Parkinson.
“Every day there are sick children in classes and at present they have to be shoved behind the secretary’s desk or something,” Doctor Parkinson told the meeting.

2-: From the Irish Independent (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Friday 29^th December 1989 [Vol. 98, No. 304, page 6, column 2]:

Corridor care in Galway’s top hospital
By STEPHEN McGRATH

PATIENTS have had to be treated in extra beds set up in the corridors of the West’s biggest hospital which has been overcrowded for months, it emerged last night.
[…]
“Patients have been treated in beds in the corridors for two to three days. This has become an almost permanent feature and it’s very hard on the dignity of the patient,” said Mr. Finbarr Fitzpatrick, secretary of the Irish Hospitals Consultants Association.
[…]
He said the Western Health Board’s allocation for 1990 was up 4.75 pc at £118m. compared to £112.8m. for 1989. “But with inflation at 4.7 pc there is nothing extra there for the patient care,” he said.

3-: From the column Fifty Plus, by Helen Zach, published in the Southall Gazette (London, England) of Friday 29^th April 1994 [page 18, column 3]:

A REPORT on Ealing Hospital’s emergency admissions has just been released by a review team headed by Sir Peter Higgins, formerly vice-chairman of South East Thames Regional Health Authority. The finding was that the number of likely emergency admissions was misjudged and this was compounded by the unexpected closure of a ward to avoid cross-infection. There was also evidence at the time that under-funding forced ward and bed closures, leading to corridor-nursing in many hospitals. Arrangements are now in hand at Ealing to prevent this happening again—hopefully.

4-: From the Evening Telegraph (Derby, Derbyshire, England) of Friday 10^th March 1995 [No. 35,359, page 7, column 2]:

Injured moved as roof leaks
CORRIDOR CARE AT HOSPITAL
by Daniel Foggo

PATIENTS were forced to do physiotherapy exercises in a corridor after a Derby hospital’s gym was shut because of a leaking roof.
Bosses at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary closed a gymnasium used for rehabilitating patients with damaged joints and muscles just minutes before the start of a treatment session—despite knowing about the problem for months.
The move meant that a dozen injured patients were made to do exercises on mats in the corridor outside the gym.

5-: From a letter to the Editor, by J. W. Dey, Director of the Riverside Healthcare Centre, Selkirk, published in The Scotsman (Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland) of Friday 8^th February 2002 [No. 49,460, page 13, column 6]:

Douglas Harding’s defence of Argyll and Bute Social Work Department’s respite care policy of placing elderly people in bed-and-breakfast establishments (Letters, 6 February) must seem incredible to those involved in the care of this group.
What comes next down this “innovative” line of thinking by social workers: creative summer breaks, perhaps, under canvas?
Sadly, this style of approach in community care mirrors unacceptable practices such as “corridor nursing” in hospital accident and emergency departments, and bed blocking of acute NHS beds by elderly patients denied funds to transfer to care homes.