Reflecting on corridor care, communication and change

With the abolition of NHS England announced (Streeting, 2025), the NHS patient safety landscape will hopefully change and be reformed, rationalised. Change will not happen overnight and there will be a period of transition as services move or become absorbed. This will also be a period of uncertainty. Organisational change is not new to the NHS – in my view, it has always appeared to be in a constant state of flux. This is one of the endemic patient safety problems of the NHS that inhibits proper development of a safety culture.

The NHS is one of the largest employers in the world with a vast range of activities, so some degree of change is going to be inevitable as it adjusts to new circumstances. This seems even more likely given the comments from the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, who has spoken recently about the forthcoming Dash Review report: