\n Paul Scott, chief executive of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), called corridor care \u201cunacceptable\u201d and made ending it a key priority.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Scott said: “Any use of corridor care is unacceptable to me, to our staff and for the patients who experience it.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Looking ahead, our ambition is to significantly reduce corridor care this winter and be well on the way to eliminating it over the next 12 months.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We have already seen improvements, and we will make sure the steps we have taken continue.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The trust runs Ipswich and Colchester hospitals, plus several community hospitals, and says it uses corridors only during extreme demand.\n<\/p>\n
\n Patients placed in corridors are assessed first, given access to a registered nurse and monitored as closely as ward patients.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Scott said Ipswich Hospital usually has a stable number of available beds, although corridor care is sometimes used temporarily.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ipswich Hospital. (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n With winter approaching, he acknowledged the extra strain on emergency services and patient flow.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Scott said: “Winter pressures are a challenge for every NHS organisation.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Our teams are experienced in managing these pressures.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We continue to strengthen our operational plans to make sure patients receive timely care and treatment while maintaining safety and quality.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The trust is focusing on patient flow, maximising capacity and working with health and care partners to treat patients in the right setting.\n<\/p>\n
\n ESNEFT is also planning a long-term overhaul of its healthcare services.\n<\/p>\n
\n The plans include bringing more specialist and regional services closer to patients\u2019 homes, expanding electronic records and providing more care in homes and communities.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Scott said the changes would cut avoidable hospital admissions and keep services sustainable as demand grows.\n<\/p>\n
\n ESNEFT serves nearly one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex, making it one of the East of England\u2019s largest NHS organisations.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ipswich Hospital was judged to require improvement by the Care Quality Commission in March<\/a> 2026, after inspectors found patients had waited up to 20 hours for treatment<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Scott, chief executive of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), called corridor care \u201cunacceptable\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-803825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}