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 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.'