Nurses say patients are dying in corridors, pregnant women are having miscarriages in side rooms, and hospitals are overwhelmed and struggling to cope.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said evidence from more than 5,000 members across the UK this winter also showed cupboards, car parks, bathrooms and nursing stations were being converted into temporary areas for patients.

Nurses warned the practice put patients at risk because staff were unable to access vital equipment such as oxygen, heart monitors and suction equipment, as well as the time and space to provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Health Minister Wes Streeting said he agreed the problems should not be tolerated but placed the blame on the previous government.

However, RCN general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger said the findings should be a "wake-up call" to Labour.

"Patients' dignity is being taken away and their lives are at risk," she said.

Professor Rangel said more investment was needed and "questions need to be asked" about whether this government was doing enough to deal with winter pressures.

More than 20 NHS trusts declared serious incidents last week as high flu rates and bad weather put pressure on hospitals.

Professor Rangel said it was well known that corridor care was becoming normalized across the UK and she warned that failure to take action would hamper the UK government's key priority of reducing waiting lists for non-urgent care.

The RCN has published more than 400 pages of testimony Its members spoke about the problems they saw.

These include:

• People in cardiac arrest in hallways or cubicles are blocked by patients on trolleys, delaying life-saving CPR
• Others died on trolleys and chairs in waiting rooms, with one nurse saying the NHS was 'no better than in developing countries'
• Woman has miscarriage in side room, which nurse says is not only painful for patient but also difficult to monitor worsening condition
• An incontinent, frail dementia patient has to change clothes at a vending machine in the corridor
• A case where 20 to 30 patients were left in the hallway, cared for by a nurse and medical assistant
• Elderly patients sit in chairs for days on end and spend hours on beds in hallways wearing dirty clothes

“We now have corridor care permanently,” one nurse said. "Patients are not being treated with the dignity and care they deserve. It breaks my heart to be honest."

Another nurse who originally worked in intensive care but was transferred to A&E said: "I feel embarrassed working for the NHS and it's the first time I've seen it broken.

"Never in my 30-year career did I think this would become the 'norm,' but it has."

One RCN member from south-east England said she now works in the corridors almost every shift and has seen some particularly "harrowing" cases recently.

She described how a dying patient in her 90s, who suffered from dementia and respiratory problems, was left in the corridor for eight hours while staff were unable to provide her with appropriate end-of-life care.

"The patient behind her was detoxing - he was vomiting and was extremely abusive. It was so undignified. You take your dog to the vet and they'll get better care.

"We're not taking care of patients the way we want to."

In a statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday about the pressures faced this winter, Streeting blamed the previous government.

"I want to be clear that I will never accept or tolerate patients being treated in the hallways.

“This is unsafe, undignified and a cruel consequence of 14 years of NHS failure, which I am determined to consign to history.

“I cannot and will not guarantee that no patients will be treated in corridors next year and it will take time to undo the damage done to our NHS.

"But that's the ambition of this government."

Duncan Burton, chief nursing officer for NHS England, said "increasing demand" has put extreme pressure on the health service in recent months and called this winter "a time when the nation One of the toughest winters the health service has ever experienced".

“As the RCN report highlights, the impact this has on patient and staff experience should in no way be considered a standard to which the NHS aspires.”

Chris McCann, of Healthwatch England, said: “These devastating stories shared by nurses echo the experiences people are telling us.

“Patients say they witness stress and overwork from staff who are coping bravely with these extreme pressures.”