Dear Coroner, Re: Regulation 28 Report to Prevent Future Deaths – Maureen Brenda Batchelor who died on 26 February 2025.

Thank you for your Report to Prevent Future Deaths (hereafter “Report”) dated 5 August 2025 concerning the death of Maureen Brenda Batchelor on 26 February 2025. In advance of responding to the specific concerns raised in your Report, I would like to express my deep condolences to Maureen’s family and loved ones. NHS England is keen to assure the family and yourself that the concerns raised about Maureen’s care have been listened to and reflected upon.

Your report raises concerns around patients being moved to and treated in the corridor when the Emergency Department (ED) has reached capacity, and the rising use of corridors to care for patients across the country due to insufficient space within the ED.

The delivery of care in Temporary Escalation Spaces (TES) in EDs experiencing patient crowding (including providing care at beds and chairs) is not acceptable and should not be considered as standard. TES refers to care given in any unplanned settings (such as corridors) and, in September 2024, NHS England published a set of principles for supporting improved quality of care should patient demand outstrip capacity. These principles have been developed to support point-of-care staff to provide the safest, most effective and highest quality care possible when TES care has been deemed necessary, and the principles should be applied alongside any local standard operating procedures and arrangements governing flow pathways and safe staffing.

In June 2025, NHS England published the Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) Plan for 2025/26, which included an ambition to ‘improve flow through hospitals with a particular focus on patients waiting over 12 hours and making progress on eliminating corridor care’. NHS England is working through the operating model to support providers to eliminate crowding in EDs in the longer term. Improvements are being progressed through NHS England’s Operational Planning guidance, where healthcare systems were asked to focus on areas to deliver improved patient flow. This has included increasing the productivity of acute and non-acute hospital services, improving flow and length of stay, as well as clinical outcomes. In addition to this, we National Medical Director NHS England Wellington House 133-155 Waterloo Road London SE1 8UG

16th October 2025

are continuing to develop services that shift activity from acute hospital settings to settings outside of an acute hospital for patients with unplanned urgent needs, supporting proactive care, alternatives to admission and improving hospital discharge.

Furthermore, since January 2025, NHS England has mandated all acute hospitals to report daily TES usage in EDs and wards. Most are now submitting data, and NHS England is working with regional teams to improve its quality, timeliness and completeness. The goal is to begin publishing data during 2025/26, to drive reductions in the use of corridor care across the country and achieve the ambition set out in the UEC plan.

I would also like to provide further assurances on the national NHS England work taking place around the Reports to Prevent Future Deaths. All reports received are discussed by the Regulation 28 Working Group, comprising Regional Medical Directors, and other clinical and quality colleagues from across the regions. This ensures that key learnings and insights around events, such as the sad death of Maureen, are shared across the NHS at both a national and regional level and helps us to pay close attention to any emerging trends that may require further review and action.

Thank you for bringing these important patient safety issues to my attention and please do not hesitate to contact me should you need any further information.

Dear Ms Andrews,

Thank you for the Regulation 28 report of 5 August sent to the Secretary of State regarding the death of Maureen Brenda Batchelor. I am replying as the Minister with responsibility for urgent and emergency care.

Firstly, I would like to say how saddened I was to read of the circumstances of Ms Batchelor’s death and I offer my sincere condolences to their family and loved ones. The circumstances your report describes are very concerning and I am grateful to you for bringing these matters to my attention. Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in responding to this matter.

The report raises concerns over unsafe use of non-clinical corridors for patient care, and persistent and severe emergency department overcrowding.

In preparing this response, my officials have made enquiries with NHS England and I understand they have already responded to address your concerns.

The Government acknowledges that urgent and emergency care (UEC) performance has not consistently met expectations in recent years. However, we are committed to ensuring patients receive the highest standard of service and care from the NHS. That is why our 10- Year Health Plan set out commitments to restoring waiting standards to those set out in the NHS Constitution by the end of this Parliament.

We are taking serious steps to achieve this. Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 focuses on improvements to deliver better UEC performance both daily and during winter pressures, ensuring more patients receive timely and clinically appropriate care. We are aiming for 78% of patients to be seen in in 4 hours this year, meaning over 800,000 people will receive more timely care. Key actions to help achieve this include:

• Investing £250 million into expanding same day and urgent care services, helping avoid unnecessary admissions to hospital and supporting faster diagnosis, treatment and discharge for patients.
• Increasing the number of patients receiving urgent care in primary, community and mental health settings.
• Introducing new clinical operational standards for the first 72 hours of care to support better hospital flow. These set minimum expectations for timely review, availability of advice, and coordinated care when multiple specialist teams are involved.
• In the longer-term, our 10 Year Health Plan will increase the urgent care capacity outside hospital through new neighbourhood health services, reducing demand pressures on A&E.

Regarding your concerns on corridor care, the provision of clinical care in corridors is unacceptable. We will publish data on the prevalence of corridor care for the first time to support transparency and drive improvement. NHS England has been working with trusts since 2024 to put in place new reporting arrangements. The data quality is currently being reviewed, and we expect to publish the information shortly. Despite increasing demand, A&E 4-hour performance has improved, supporting better patient flow, and showing that the measures we are taking are already having a positive impact. The latest NHS figures show that in November 2025, 4-hour A&E performance improved to 74.2%, up from 72.2% in November last year. I hope this response provides reassurance that the Government is taking meaningful action to improve urgent and emergency care services. Thank you once again for bringing these concerns to my attention.