Shocking footage reveals catastrophic hospital scenes with patients left for days on a trolley in a corridor with many others.
The Mirror obtained the footage of “Third World” scenes in hospital corridors with sick and elderly patients on trolleys going “on and on”. The Royal College of Nursing has released a 460-page report showing care in such inappropriate spaces has become normalised all year round, saying it is the worst it has ever been. Testimony from 5,000 nurses lays bare the consequences of a decade of NHS under-funding which nurses insist is costing lives.
One eye witness, whose elderly relative waited more than 24 hours on a trolley on Friday, said: “Trolleys with the sick and dying seemed to go on forever. They went on and on through swing doors. I remember thinking this is something out of a Third World country. Once you get seen the treatment is great but it’s how long you have to wait to get treated.”
Tearful nurses told an RCN briefing in central London of being powerless as patients spend hours slowly dying on a trolley in a busy corridor and finding a dead patient under a pile of coats. Demoralised medics report caring for as many as 40 patients in a single corridor, unable to access oxygen, cardiac monitors, and vital suction equipment to clear blocked airways. The survey tells of pregnant women miscarrying in corridors, while other nurses say they cannot access patients to give proper CPR when they have heart attacks.
Prof Nicola Ranger, General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, explained that in previous years such escalation spaces would be temporary for maybe 48 hours but it has now become permanent. She said: “I have no doubt this is costing lives. These pressures are not unprecedented but the way that we have got all these areas open is something like we have never seen. When you’ve got an escalation area with temporary beds open for two years that is not temporary, that is unfunded, understaffed hospitals and it is unethical to have patients in these spaces. So is the scale of this the worst it’s ever been? Absolutely.”
Nine out of 10 of nurses surveyed say patient safety is being compromised. One told of elderly patients “cared for in very inhumane and Third World conditions”. 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.” Another said: “A patient had a cardiac arrest in the corridor by the male toilet and died.”
One nurse 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.” Another nurse said: “A patient died in the corridor but wasn’t discovered for hours.” Almost seven in 10 nurses report delivering care in over-crowded or unsuitable places like corridors, converted cupboards and even car parks every day. One testimony said “patients sit in chairs, sometimes for days waiting for a bed”.
Another said: “We told a patient he was dying as patients were wheeled past and orders shouted across the unit. How is it fair to tell someone they are dying in a corridor?” Other hospital spaces filled with the sick and dying include bathrooms, cloakrooms, bereavement rooms and paediatric recovery rooms with children in.
Prof Ranger added: “With corridor care many members challenge me and say ‘how can we even call this care?’ When there’s an elderly lady calling out for help to go to the toilet and the effect of the nurse having to watch her look of absolute horror and indignity when she realised that she just had to wet herself. That sort of testimony has brought me to tears because it’s absolutely devastating.”
NHS England reports the busiest year on record for emergency services – with around 95% of hospital beds occupied. Thousands of beds are taken up by medically fit patients because there are no social care beds to discharge them to.
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Duncan Burton, NHS England’s Chief Nursing Officer for England, said: “That is why, building a health service that is fit for the future is a key priority for the NHS and Government and the NHS is continuing to work hard to deliver improvements across urgent and emergency care for patients and our staff.
“Increasing levels of demand have resulted in extreme pressures on services. As the incredibly busy winter continues and hospitals clearly experience intense pressure, please do continue to only use 999 and A&E in life-threatening emergencies and use NHS 111 and 111 online for other conditions, as well as using your local GP and pharmacy services in the usual way.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the House of Commons: “I said on day one in this job that I would never gloss over problems in the health service. I will not pretend that everything is going well when it is not. The experience of patients this winter is unacceptable.”
He added: “This is not the level of care staff want for their patients, and it is not the level of care this government will ever accept for patients. I said coming into this winter that 14 years of failure can’t be turned around in six months. It will take time to fix our broken NHS.”
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