A devastating 460-page dossier compiled by frontline nurses has laid bare the shocking reality of conditions in Britain’s NHS hospitals, where dead patients lie undiscovered for hours because staff are too overstretched to notice, while chronic bed shortages means the sick are also being left in “animal-like” conditions in car parks, cupboards and toilets.
Pregnant women are suffering miscarriages in corridors and the elderly are languishing unaided in soiled bedding, the report adds.
Daily Mail reports that the collapse of the NHS was exposed last week by the Royal College of Nursing in its dossier entitled ‘On the frontline of the UK’ corridor care crisis’.
It features the testimonies of more than 5 000 nurses, who expose how patients are being “stripped of their dignity” and routinely suffering avoidable deaths.
They say it has become “normalised” for patients to be left for days at a time in chairs or trolleys in “inappropriate settings'’, rather than in wards. Demoralised nurses report caring for up to 40 patients in a single corridor – some blocking fire exits or parked next to vending machines.
There, they have no access to a call bell, oxygen or lifesaving equipment and are often out of sight of the nursing station. Some are forced to go to the toilet in view of other patients, while others have no privacy as they discuss deeply personal medical issues or are told they are going to die.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told MPs that corridor care was “undignified” but warned that patients were still likely to be treated there next winter.
Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN chief executive, described the report as “harrowing”, adding staff were leaving because they “cannot do it anymore”.
“This devastating testimony shows patients are coming to harm every day, forced to endure unsafe treatment in corridors, toilets, and even rooms usually reserved for families to visit deceased relatives.
“We can now categorically say patients are dying in this situation.”
A survey of NHS nursing staff for the report found 67% are delivering care every day in overcrowded or unsuitable places. Some 91% said the care was unsafe.
The report comes just days after figures revealed hospitals had left a record 518 000 patients languishing on trolleys in A&E for 12 hours or more last year.
Previous research by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine found long waits in A&E are likely to have contributed to 14 000 deaths in 2023.
Given the rise in long waits last year, the fatalities are likely to be even higher.
The issue of long A&E waits has come to the fore in recent weeks amid a surge in flu, with around 5 000 beds a day filled with flu patients.
The RCN said flu levels this year were higher than last year but not unusual compared with previous years, and that the government must not be allowed to use it as an excuse for poor care.
The bed shortages are being fuelled by rising demand for care and by bed-blockers.
An average of 12 591 hospital beds in England were filled each day last week with patients who were medically fit for discharge but were unable to leave.
Many will have been waiting for a place in a care home or for care to be arranged in their own homes.
Duncan Burton, chief nursing officer at NHS England, said: “Increasing levels of demand have resulted in extreme pressures on services.
“The impact this has on the experiences of patients and staff, as highlighted by the RCN, should never be considered the standard to which the NHS aspires.”
On the frontlines report (Open access)
Daily Mail article – The shame and horror of NHS corridor care (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
UK private healthcare thriving while NHS flounders
Private hospital admissions soar in UK as NHS takes strain