The YouGov poll on behalf of the RCN found 48% believed the crisis could be brought to an end in 12 months.

RCN general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: ‘The public and nursing staff can see a tragedy for patients unfolding before their eyes. They know care standards are unacceptable and they want Government to act decisively. The first step it can take to protect patients from corridor care is to introduce mandatory reporting of any time it takes place.'

While 50% of people in England blamed the previous Government for the problem, 48% said it was the current administration's responsibility to solve it.

Nine in 10 said the need to prevent care from being delivered in non-medical areas (such as corridors and car parks) was urgent. Nearly one in five (19%) in said they had witnessed or received that type of care within the last six months.

The RCN called on the Government to make eradicating corridor care a key priority in the new 10-Year Plan due this spring.

Rory Deighton, acute director at the NHS Confederation, said: ‘It will take time to get the measures in place to eradicate the need for corridor care as this has resulted from a long-term failure to provide sufficient capacity in the NHS and social care. But that is the ambition and NHS leaders and staff will do all they can to achieve that. 

‘They will need support from Government to make this happen. While we agree that there needs to be transparency and accountability on this issue, we would urge the Government to ensure that any new reporting requirements on corridor care contribute to solving the problem rather than gumming up valuable clinician and management capacity.'

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘It is shocking that corridor care has become a normal feature in our hospitals. Despite the best efforts of staff, patients are receiving unacceptable standards of treatment.

‘In our first six months, we've ended the strikes so staff are on the frontline not the picket line, introduced the new RSV vaccine, and we have vaccinated more people against flu than last winter. It will take time to fix our broken NHS, but it can be done.'