Responding to the APPG report on corridor care, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said:
“Emergency departments should be places of safety for those in crisis, but this report shows they have become places of prolonged and unnecessary suffering. It breaks the hearts of nursing staff and doctors that patients are lining corridors, waiting hours to be seen. But the truth is staff face an impossible task, with too few of them and demand surging.
“It’s incredibly worrying that care standards have fallen so far that so many no longer expect to be treated in a clinically appropriate space. That should send shockwaves through government. We also know that corridor care is not confined to emergency departments, with patients being placed on chairs, trollies and in side-rooms right across hospitals and community services becoming increasingly overwhelmed.
“More than 18 months ago, we declared a corridor care national emergency with nursing staff struggling to keep patients safe in shocking conditions. With little sign of improvement, and with flu rates rising, I fear a catastrophe on our wards this winter.
“To end this cycle of decline and crisis, we need transparency and for ministers to publish long overdue data on how widespread corridor care is. Nursing is the solution and stands ready to get things better for their patients and the profession but we need a detailed and fully-funded plan for investment in primary care, community and social care services, and their nursing workforce. That is how we start to turn this around and get patients out of hospital and deliver care closer to home."
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