Maureen Batchelor

Minister of State for Health (Secondary Care) 

39 Victoria Street 
London 
SW1H 0EU 

Ms Joanne Andrews 
HM Area Coroner 
West Sussex, Brighton and Hove Coroner Service 
The Coroner’s Office 
Woodvale 
Lewes Road 
Brighton 
BN2 3QB 

19 January 2025 

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: 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
 
 
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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. 

Yours sincerely,  

MINISTER OF STATE FOR HEALTH

HM Area Coroner  
Ms Joanne Andrews 
West Sussex, Brighton and Hove 
Parkside Chart Way 
Horsham 
RH12 1XH 

30 September 2025 

University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust 
Trust Headquarters 
Royal Sussex County Hospital 
Eastern Road 
Brighton 
BN2 5BE 

Dear Ms Andrews 

Inquest into the death of Maureen Brenda Batchelor  

Thank you for your letter of 5 August 2025, enclosing your formal report under Regulation 
28 to Prevent Future Deaths, to NHS England & NHS Improvement, the Department of 
Health and Social Care, and the Trust. 

At the outset, I wish to express my sincere condolences to 

 family. 

Thank you for confirming that there was no evidence from which you could conclude that 
the period of time taken to transfer Mrs Batchelor from the corridor to the Resuscitation 

However, you are 

understandably concerned that the corridor at times continues to be used to treat patients 
when there is insufficient capacity in within the Emergency Department (ED).  

Your Regulation 28 report has been carefully considered by the Executive team, and the 
Medicine Division, including the Chief of Service for Medicine and the Divisional Director of 
Nursing for Medicine. Your concerns have also been shared at the Trust wide Patient 
Safety Group meeting to ensure widespread learning and engagement.  

As you know from the evidence heard at the inquest, the Medicine Divisional Leadership 
team, the Hospital Directors, and Executive team are continuously working on several 
separate but linked workstreams, which were previously in their infancy, to eradicate the 
use of the ED corridor for patient care and ensure they are treated in the most appropriate 
clinical environment with dignity and without delays. 

Our Acute Floor Reconfiguration, which is a £48 million capital improvement programme to 
improve patient and staff experience at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, is well 
underway. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Our Interim Assistant Director for Leadership and Management is leading on a cultural 

nominated leaders, staff empowerment, a 4 hour response timeline, celebration of teams 
preventing corridor use, regular feedback and learning loops, and scenario based training 
to reinforce the cultural mindset change.  

We now have a Direct to 
specialties so certain categories of patient are accepted by the relevant specialty on 
presentation to the ED. Our Interim General Manager for Medicine and Urgent Care 
(Brighton and Haywards Heath) is the Responsive workstream lead for this, and data is 
collected daily for all specialty referrals from ED, to monitor the response times from the 
specialties. Specialties in-reach to ED/AMU/SDEC and we operate a 3/2/1 bleep system to 
ensure this is fast and effective. There are regular cross specialty flow meetings over the 
course of the day.  

We have an Operational Flow Improvement Manager in post who is leading the Hospital 
Alternative Oversight Programme (HALO). This work is aimed at the avoidance of 
inappropriate hospital admissions, to optimise patient flow through the hospital, and smooth 
discharge pathways and processes. This includes:  

  Unscheduled care Navigation Hub 
  Frailty Care Home Outreach & Red Bag Launch 
  Frailty High Weald Lewes & Havens Outreach 

Integrated front door therapies team RSCH (Royal Sussex County Hospital) 

  Virtual Health, both General Virtual Ward and Respiratory Home Monitoring Services 
  Frailty and Respiratory SDEC (Same Day Emergency Care) Optimisation 

Interprofessional Standards 

  UTC (Urgent Treatment Centre) Optimisation 
  Early Discharge Planning 
  Deconditioning Prevention 
  Tiered Acuity Model 

These initiatives are in collaboration with our colleagues from the ICB (Integrated Care 
Board), Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust (SCFT), South East Coast Ambulance 
Service (SECAmb), Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPFT), and Brighton & 
Hove City Council (BHCC).  

I am pleased to say that we are working closely with SECAmb by having a Consultant of 
ours giving advice at the point of contact to ensure only the correct patients (those in need 
of emergency care) are coming to the ED. This work has demonstrated that 8 -10 
ambulance attendances are avoided each day.  

Furthermore, we work closely with the local Mental Health Trust, SPFT, as part of HALO to 
try to ensure that patients requiring mental health hospital admission are admitted to an 
appropriate mental health unit as quickly as possible.  

One of our Frailty Consultants is working with the 10 local Nursing Homes which have the 
highest number of presentations of their residents to ED, to educate their teams on non 
necessary attendances to ED and providing them with confidence in navigating alternatives 
to the ED.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 We have changed our Medical Model of Care in ED so there is a GP of the day supporting 
our ambulatory patient area. 

There is a Capacity and Demand modelling piece of work underway which is realigning 
areas with increased bed spaces to areas with less bed spaces with workforce changes to 
match the demand.  

We have converted what was previously a trolley cubicle into a reclining chair area within 
Majors in ED to increase clinical space.   

The Continuous Flow Model has improved the earlier movement of patients from the Acute 
Floor and reduced the time patients are waiting in the ED for admission to a ward.  

I hope this letter provides assurance that we are continuing to make significant 
improvements to the quality and safety in the Royal Sussex County Hospital ED. 

Yours sincerely, 

Interim Chief Executive

Ms Joanne Andrews  
Area Coroner 
West Sussex, Brighton and Hove Coroner Service 
The Coroner’s Office 
Woodvale  
Lewes Road  
Brighton 
BN2 3QB  

National Medical Director  
NHS England  
Wellington House 
133-155 Waterloo Road  
London 
SE1 8UG 

16th October 2025  

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 

                                                                                                                       
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
  
 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.  

Yours sincerely,  

National Medical Director  
NHS England