The BBC investigation found 52,015 patients had to wait longer than 24 hours after to get a bed in a ward with 6,893 waiting longer than 48 hours.

The FOI requests also revealed 12,458 patients waiting longer than 24 hours and 1,342 waiting longer than 48 hours in warmer months between May and August.

Speaking on behalf of the Royal College of Nursing, a nurse in an NHS hospital in the North West said trust planning meant no more than six patients should be in the corridor at any one time but that now ‘it is becoming routine to care for up to 26 patients'.

They added: ‘It breaks my heart being in work and there being a patient, usually elderly, on the corridor and coming back two days later and them still being there.'

Dr Ian Higginson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: ‘Hospitals are full partly because they are inefficient, and partly because beds are often taken up by patients who have already experienced delays in their care, and who no longer need to be in hospital, but can't leave because of the lack of social or community care options.

‘While there is clearly recognition of the issue from the Government and health leaders, we need to see a credible long-term plan that meaningfully tackles and prevents corridor care. They've been focusing on trying to manage demand, rather than trying to sort out the underlying issues with the system.

‘We also need to see greater collaboration across the hospital and wider system to maintain smooth patient flow, free up beds and ensure EDs can safely receive ambulance arrivals.'

Dr Michael Gregory, regional medical director for NHS England in the North West, said: ‘Accident and Emergency Departments in the North West, and nationally, have been experiencing rising demand for a number of years and the NHS is currently experiencing its busiest winter on record.

‘It is well known that we have an ageing population and people often have multiple, complex health conditions, which means our hospitals are seeing increasing numbers of acutely unwell patients who need to be admitted.

‘Despite teams working incredibly hard in very difficult circumstances, this does mean that some patients are cared for by doctors and nurses in corridors and some patients experience longer waits that we would like for a bed.

‘Providing care in corridors is not what we want for our patients, and we are working hard to reduce the use of corridor care and tackle long waits. This includes providing more care in people's homes to help them avoid hospital admissions or get home from hospital sooner, freeing up beds for those who need them.'