Nottingham’s A&E department has faced more than double the number of patients it can deal with at any one time each day during the first week of January.
The stark figures, presented to hospital officials in a board meeting last Thursday (8 January), reflect the harsh reality of the overcrowded emergency department at Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC).
QMC Emergency Department is designed to deal with around 350 patients over a 24-hour period.
It can do this because its clinical spaces can accommodate 131 patients at any one time, assuming that most patients do not need to stay in A&E all day.
Speaking at Thursday’s meeting, Andrew Hall, Chief Operating Officer, told board members that QMC’s A&E had been dealing with around 250 to 300 patients at some points during the day since the start of January.
This is more than double the 131-space capacity at any given time, meaning people have been receiving care in the department’s corridors. NUH’s Chairperson, Nick Carver, later said the system was not working “optimally”.
QMC’s overall daily intake of patients into its emergency department has been averaging around 508 patients since the start of January, higher than the hospital’s 350-patient daily capacity.
NUH implemented its 45-minute handover delivery plan in December 2025, aiming to take in patients brought in by East Midlands Ambulance Service within 45 minutes of their arrival at hospital – this can lead to patients receiving care in A&E corridors as ambulances work to return to the community.
Non-Executive Director, Karen Tomlinson, asked: “How do we ensure we have the right staffing levels and the right skill mix to care for those patients in perhaps alternate settings to where we’d prefer them to be?”
Chief Nurse, Tracy Pilcher, responded that NUH has “a ratio of staff to patient”, and more staff are present in instances where there is corridor care. She added that patients have been “very understanding” about being cared for in the corridors.
Mr Hall also informed members that since Christmas 2025, there have been around 750 to 800 patients daily wanting to access emergency care across the trust, including its urgent treatment centre on London Road.
For those patients who have required admission, Mr Hall said NUH had seen around 1,300 patients in emergency beds in the first full week of January 2025, which was a “higher level than we anticipated”. This number has since reduced to around 1,250.
He said one way the trust has responded to this need is by keeping open an additional 30 beds, which it intends to close soon.
Mr Carver echoed Chief Executive Anthony May’s apologies for some patients receiving unconventional care, saying: “We do not seek to provide care in the corridors; it’s not optimal by any means at all.
“I think it’s preferable in those extreme situations to people not having ambulances to respond to their emergency needs… We can do better, we know we can do better, we can always do better than we are now.
“The system does not work optimally. If the system worked optimally, we wouldn’t have [nearly 200] medically safe discharge patients [waiting to go home] at the moment.
“If the system worked optimally, we would replace buildings that the state [government] recognises need to be replaced but the state can’t afford to replace them – we’ve got to be honest with people about this.”
Tomorrow’s NUH is a scheme aimed at greatly expanding and modernising facilities across both QMC and Nottingham City Hospital.
The project is part of the Government’s New Hospital Programme (NHP), which is investing in buildings and equipment across the NHS to revitalise healthcare.
But in January 2025, Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said construction would be delayed until at least 2037 – and possibly as late as 2039 – following a review.
Despite its overcrowded A&E department, NUH has recently been hitting its target of 300 discharge patients a day, with 391 discharged on 7 January and around 350 discharged on 6 January.
Hitting its discharge aim means more beds are freed up on wards across hospitals, and patients flow through the hospital better, helping to alleviate pressure at the front door of its emergency department.