The NHS is not fit for the 21st century, the new chief inspector of hospitals has said - warning all trusts to take urgent steps to make Accident & Emergency departments safe.

Prof Ted Baker said it was “not acceptable” to keep “piling patients into corridors” as he urged hospital leaders to act swiftly to guard the safety of those in their care.

In his first interview as chief inspector, he said too many hospitals had normalised “wholly unsatisfactory” arrangements which endangered patients, as well as denying basic privacy and dignity.

Prof Baker has written to all hospital chief executives, calling for immediate action to improve safety in A&E, amid fears the NHS will struggle to cope with overcrowding this winter.

Trusts are instructed not to force patients to queue in ambulances, and warned of the dangers of leaving patients in corridors, where staff cannot even see them.

He told The Telegraph that he was concerned that a culture of “learned helplessness” had sprung up in some A&Es, where staff “just pile the corridor full of patients” leaving them exposed, unmonitored and even without access to vital supplies, such as oxygen.

But the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspector said far more radical action was needed to stop hospitals becoming entirely overwhelmed.