A snap inspection earlier this year by the CQC found Croydon’s largest hospital’s emergency department still failing to meet legal requirements for patient privacy and dignity, while ‘corridor care remains a concern’
Mayday!: the emergency services at Croydon University Hospital have been rated as ‘Requires improvement’ since at least 2019
Urgent and emergency services at Croydon’s largest hospital have failed their latest inspection and have been rated “Requires improvement”.
This is at least the fourth inspection report from the Care Quality Commission – CQC – where this area of work at what some call Croydon University Hospital has been rated “Requires improvement”. CQC inspectors in 2019, 2022 and 2025 drew similar conclusions, citing capacity pressures and staff shortages.
The latest inspection was made unannounced, and was a follow-up on last year’s visit, which found the hospital was in breach of its legal responsibilities in respect of privacy and dignity.
“Inspectors found the trust had made some improvements to people’s safety, but continued to breach regulations around privacy and dignity,” the CQC says in its latest report, just published.
The report says that between March 2025 and February 2026, the service received 114 complaints, mainly relating to the emergency department. “These highlighted constant
pressure and recurring issues which the service did not always resolve.”
And: “From September 2025 to February 2026 the service reported 80 incidents of mental health patients absconding, which indicated a significant and ongoing risk to patient safety. In 79 of these incidents, staff contacted the police, showing a reliance on external agencies to manage absconding events.”
Parts of the report show similar shortcomings to those found previously. “Evidence shows some shortfalls in the standard of care,” the report says of the urgent and emergency service. “The service did not always manage or monitor people’s safety. They did not always make sure there was continuity of care.”
And the 20-page report includes this: “The use of the corridor care remained a concern.”
The lengthy waits endured by patients to be seen by medical staff or admitted as in-patients features frequently in the report, which states, “This resulted in patients remaining in areas not ideal for their needs, often for long periods of time. During periods of crowding, staff used escalation areas which were not designed for patient care. This increased safety risks.”
Amber warning: the CQC’s latest report struggles to find signs of significant improvement at Croydon’s Mayday Hospital’s emergency department
The hospital has even now got senior doctors – consultants – conducting daily rounds for patients who have been left waiting more than 24 hours for an in-patient bed.
In a statement released with the report, the CQC says: “High demand, limited discharges and delays in other social care and mental health services meant people continued to experience long waits in the emergency department. This caused overcrowding, meaning many people still had to be cared for in non-clinical spaces, such as corridors.
“Leaders had introduced additional staffing and rules around who could be cared for safely in these spaces, but the physical space was still small and could restrict movement in an emergency. Leaders had also invested in privacy screens, but these areas remained bright and uncomfortable, and private conversations about people’s health could be overheard.”
The CQC ratings found the hospital A&E services requires improvement for four categories: “safe”, “caring”, “responsive” and “well-led”.
“This inspection did not examine how effective these services are, so this remains rated good from a previous inspection,” the CQC said.
“Croydon University Hospital as a whole remains rated requires improvement.”
Inspectors also found:
- Surveys by the trust showed people didn’t always feel informed about waiting times or able to get prompt help from staff when they needed it
- The department reported and investigated when things went wrong, but didn’t always share learning from this well to improve people’s care in future
- Some staff weren’t confident in identifying and reporting safeguarding concerns, to protect people from risks of abuse or neglect
- Leaders understood the challenges the service faced and were focused on reducing safety risks. However, safety incidents continued to occur, and leaders had not suitably addressed shortfalls in people’s privacy and dignity
The CQC said that people its inspectors spoke to said that hospital staff were kind, respectful and understood their needs. The hospital’s managers have been working with other healthcare organisations to attempt to make changes, and have added a new medical assessment area to improve flow through the hospital and reduce waiting times.
Following this fourth “Requires improvement” CQC report, a spokesperson from Croydon Health Services NHS Trust provided this statement to Inside Croydon: “We welcome the Care Quality Commission’s report and the recognition of the compassion, kindness and professionalism shown by our staff working in urgent and emergency care.
“The report highlights that improvements have been made in patient safety, however, we fully recognise that further work is needed, particularly in relation to privacy and dignity and the impact of long waits on our patients.
“Like many NHS organisations, we continue to face sustained and significant pressure on our emergency department and have already introduced measures to support our staff and improve the experience of our patients including increased staffing, additional assessment capacity and we continue to work closely with partners across the local health and care system to improve patient flow and reduce waiting times.”
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Terrible place sent me home from A and E with a canula still in my arm was so unwell didn’t realise until I got home. Had to attend local care centre in Surrey to get it safely removed as I refused to go back to the hell hole still known as maydie