NHS patients are being treated and dying in hospital corridors, nurses have warned as they declared a “national emergency” in the health service. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says patients are regularly treated on chairs in corridors for extended periods of time, and are being left without access to oxygen and enduring intimate examinations in inappropriate crowded areas. The union is calling for mandatory reporting of patients cared for in corridors to show the extent of hospital overcrowding.
Acting general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger will say that the situation is a “tragedy” for the nursing profession at the start of the union’s annual conference in Newport, South Wales, on Monday. She will say: “Our once world-leading services are treating patients in car parks and store cupboards. “The elderly are languishing on chairs for hours on end and patients are dying in corridors.
The horror of this situation cannot be understated. It is a national emergency for patient safety and today we are raising the alarm. “This is about honesty and accountability.
Care being delivered in front of a fire exit isn’t care. Signing ‘Do not resuscitate’ orders in a corridor isn’t care. “Receiving a cancer diagnosis in a public area isn’t care.
It’s a nightmare for all involved. We need to call it out as nursing staff, and health leaders and ministers need to take responsibility.” A survey of almost 11,000 frontline nursing staff across the UK showed .
