Responding to Age UK's report into corridor care, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said:
“Corridor care is a moral stain on our health service, and this report is yet more evidence of its devastating consequences. No elderly or vulnerable person should be forced to endure these conditions. It is unsafe, undignified, and unacceptable.
“Overstretched and understaffed nursing teams work hard every day to deliver the best care, but they face an impossible task. You simply cannot provide good quality care when patients are lining corridors or are pushed into any other available space, no matter how inappropriate. The reality is nursing staff and patients are being set up to fail by a system that simply isn’t working.
“The time for action was yesterday. But despite nursing staff declaring a national emergency on corridor care 18 months ago, little has been done to solve it. Ministers are still failing to publish long-overdue data on how widespread corridor care is, or commit to the necessary new investment needed in the nursing workforce in primary care, community and social care, to unlock additional capacity and ease the overwhelming pressure on hospitals.”
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