The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned that patients are dying in corridors and sometimes going undiscovered for hours. A survey of NHS nursing staff shows the scale of the corridor care crisis in hospitals, with almost seven in ten (66.81%) saying they are delivering care in over-crowded or unsuitable places - like corridors, converted cupboards and even car parks - on a daily basis.
The experiences of over 5,000 nursing staff across the UK highlight a devastating collapse in care standards, with patients routinely coming to harm. The RCN says the testimony, which runs to over 400 pages, must mark a ‘moment in time’.
Demoralised nursing staff report caring for as many as 40 patients in a single corridor, unable to access oxygen, cardiac monitors, suction and other lifesaving equipment. They report female patients miscarrying in corridors, while others say they cannot provide adequate or timely CPR to patients having heart attacks. More than nine in ten (90.82%) of those surveyed say patient safety is being compromised.
A nurse working in the South East of England, said: “We have had cardiac arrests in the corridor or in cubicles blocked by patients on trolleys in front of them, delaying lifesaving CPR. Despite these never events, we still are obliged to deliver care in the corridor.”
Another, said: “A patient had a cardiac arrest in the corridor by the male toilet and died”, whilst another said there had been “cardiac arrests in the corridor with no crash bell, crash trolley, oxygen, defibrillator ... straddling a patient doing CPR while everyone watches on”.
A nurse working in the East of England, also said: “Patients miscarrying and returning for treatment are being bedded in the busy waiting room which is used for emergency attenders and an outpatient department.”
For the first time, nursing staff also list the breadth of inappropriate places where care is now being delivered, far beyond emergency departments. These include bathrooms, cloakrooms, bereavement rooms and even viewing rooms where families visit deceased relatives. In some hospitals, adults are being placed in paediatric recovery rooms.
A nurse in London said: “The department is over capacity on a daily basis, leaving patients being cared for in corridors, on chairs when they should be in beds, on ambulance trolleys, in relatives’ rooms, in viewing rooms, anywhere there is a space.”
One nurse from Scotland, said: “This elderly patient who was bed bound was doubly incontinent and needed a space in private to be cleaned, our only option was the charge nurse’s office.”
Nursing staff also report cancer patients being put in corridors and other inappropriate spaces. In the South West, a nurse said: “It was a cancer patient whose immunity was very low because of her treatment. She should have been in a side room. She was very upset and crying. We put screens around her but she was in the path of the staff room and toilet, so it was constantly busy. That poor lady eventually passed away.”
A nurse in the North East of England described two dying patients being crammed in next to one another, with no privacy for their families, “like watching a horrid film that I can’t stop.”
The testimony also reveals serious concerns about infection prevention and control with patients squeezed into tight spaces next to one another. A nurse in a hospital in the South of England, said: “Multiple patients lined up in a corridor awaiting cubicles. One patient vomited in the corridor but also vomited on another patient because they were so close together. I was absolutely heartbroken for both of these patients.”
The RCN says corridor care has become totally normalised across NHS hospitals, as nursing staff report elderly and vulnerable patients receiving undignified treatment. A nurse working in the South East of England said: “A 90 year lady with dementia was scared crying and urinating in the bed after asking several times for help to the toilet. Seeing that lady, frightened and subjected to animal-like conditions is what broke me. At the end of that shift, I handed in my notice with no job to go to. I will not work where this is a normal day to day occurrence.”
Another nurse, working in Northern Ireland, said: ‘I had to change incontinent, frail patient with dementia on the corridor, by the vending machine.’
A nurse in the South East, said: “A patient died in the corridor but wasn’t discovered for hours.”
More than one in four of the nursing staff surveyed by the RCN said they were not told that the corridor they were providing care in was classed as a ‘temporary escalation space’, as described by the NHS in England. This means that risk protocols and additional measures may not be in place to ease pressures and protect patients. It follows a letter from a coalition including the RCN, BMA, Royal College of Physicians, Patients Association and Age UK which called on the Westminster Government and NHS England to publish how many patients are being cared for in corridors and all other inappropriate places.
A nurse in England, said: “We are caring for almost 40 patients in corridor/overflow spaces every day. The risks are getting much higher, and the impact it has on staff morale is huge. We are all exhausted. No one started their career in nursing imagining a time like this.”
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “This devastating testimony from frontline nursing staff 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. Vulnerable people are being stripped of their dignity and nursing staff are being denied access to vital lifesaving equipment. We can now categorically say patients are dying in this situation.
“The revelations from our wards must now become a moment in time. A moment for bold government action on an NHS which has been neglected for so long. Ministers cannot shirk responsibility and need to recognise that recovering patient care will take new investment, including in building a strong nursing workforce.
“Health leaders must also commit to publishing the data on exactly how many patients are being cared for in these circumstances. The public deserves to know what is happening to patient safety.”
The full report can be found here.
