The Same Day Emergency Care centre at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle is to be expanded as part of the Government’s drive to end corridor care.

It is one of 40 new and expanded urgent care sites across England which have been announced by Labour, as part of a £215.5 million programme to ease pressure on A&E departments, reduce waiting times and improve patient flow through hospitals.

Julie Minns, Labour MP for Carlisle said: “This expansion of urgent care services will be transformative for Carlisle, helping ensure more people get the care they deserve.

"This is a vital step toward easing pressure on hospitals and ending this scourge on our community.

"I was elected on a promise to help get our NHS back on its feet after 14 years of Tory neglect, and this is exactly the kind of support Carlisle needs to see."

Across England the programme includes 10 new urgent treatment centres (UTCs), four expanded UTCs, five new same day emergency care (SDEC) services and 21 expanded SDECs, providing a significant increase in frontline capacity.

The Cumberland Infirmary which is run by the North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, is among the 21 which will see their Same Day Emergency Care facility expanded.

In other measures, expert teams will be deployed to hospitals which have the highest levels of corridor care, where they will provide bespoke clinical support to leadership staff.

Early data shows the majority of corridor care is concentrated in a small number of NHS trusts.

The Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) teams support leaders in the most affected hospitals to learn from those NHS trusts which have already made significant inroads into reducing corridor care this year – at a time when real progress is being made across urgent and emergency care, including the shortest A&E waiting times in four years and ambulance response times the fastest for half a decade, despite record demand and a gruelling winter.

The Labour Government plans to eradicate corridor care by the end of this Parliament, delivering on the Party’s manifesto commitment to build an NHS fit for the future.

Labour's Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting said:

“For too long, the normalisation of corridor care has been baked into parts of our NHS – it’s unacceptable, undignified and exactly why this government is shifting the dial for patients and staff.

"We're sending in specialist teams of experts to identify the causes in some of the worst offending trusts and swiftly rectify the problems they find.

“That, plus new and expanded urgent care centres will mean patients are treated more quickly and in the right place, while easing pressure on busy A&Es to care for the most serious cases.

“We are cutting waiting times and moving away from unacceptable corridor care, building an NHS that treats patients with dignity.”

NHS England published a clear definition of corridor care for the first time last month to allow trusts to begin collecting data, which will be published from May.

It has also outlined its ‘model emergency department’ – a blueprint for how services should operate from this year. This will involve more assessments and triage by senior clinicians earlier, allowing patients to be cared for away from busy A&Es where appropriate.

Alongside this, to tackle discharge delays, we are joining up NHS and social care through Neighbourhood Health Teams - so more people can get the care they need at home - and backing adult social care with a £4.6 billion funding boost. 

Urgent treatment centres treat minor illnesses and injuries such as sprains, cuts and infections, with walk-in appointments available.

Same day emergency care services provide rapid assessment, diagnosis and treatment for patients with urgent but stable conditions – avoiding unnecessary hospital admissions.

Some of the new and expanded services will open later this year, further strengthening NHS capacity ahead of the winter.