The move comes alongside confirmation of 40 new and expanded same day emergency care and urgent care centres to ease pressure on busy A&Es.

Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘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.'

The specialist Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) teams provide tailored support to each hospital – including identifying how to improve discharge and flow, helping trusts to better understand their own data so they can improve predicting when surges in demand may appear, and supporting clinical leaders in improved decision making.

In addition, backed by £215.5m, 10 new urgent treatment centres (UTCs), four expanded UTCs, five new same day emergency care (SDEC) services and 21 expanded SDECs, are being provided.

NHS England published a definition of corridor care for the first time in March 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, which will involve more assessments and triage by senior clinicians earlier. 

The Government cited several examples of the ‘green shoots of recovery', including:

• Queen's Hospital in Romford where there is improving flow and stronger working between urgent and primary care services
• Hull where ambulance handover delays were reduced by 27% and 12-hour waits cut by 47%
• Royal Blackburn (East Lancs) where the main corridor has been cleared of patients, with an 18% reduction in 12-hour waits
• Blackpool where significant inroads to tackle corridor care have been made, with a 43% cut in 12-hour waits and reductions in their patient's length of stay and those waiting for discharge.

Reaction

Rory Deighton, acute care director at The NHS Alliance, said: ‘Targeted help for the worst-affected trusts could enable best practice from other parts of the NHS to spread and benefit patients throughout the system.

‘Ambulance and hospital staff are struggling with rising demand throughout urgent and emergency care. To ease the pressure and improve patient care, we need solutions across the whole health system – faster access to primary care, better alternatives to A&E and specialist support for those with the greatest needs.'

Unison head of health Helga Pile said: ‘The extra help will be welcome at the hospitals struggling most, but a systemic and longer-term response is needed. 

‘That requires a proper plan to boost staffing generally, as well as for the new centres. Solving the social care bottleneck with a national care service is also critical.'