More than 5,000 nurses shared their experiences in a major survey (Image: Getty)
Heartbroken nurses have described seeing dying patients crammed into hospital corridors with no privacy as “like watching a horrid film that I can’t stop”.
Harrowing testimony from frontline staff lays bare the scale of the hospital crisis gripping the NHS in a damning 460-page report.
Overcrowding in the nation’s hospitals means patients are languishing – and in some cases, dying – on trolleys while waiting for ward beds to become available, the Royal College of Nursing said.
It surveyed more than 5,000 UK nurses and has published shocking evidence of their experiences this winter.
One nurse working in a hospital in the south of England said they had seen “multiple patients lined up in a corridor awaiting cubicles”.
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They added: “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.”
Another nurse in the North East described two dying patients being crammed in next to one another, with no privacy for their families, as “like watching a horrid film that I can’t stop.”
The RCN investigated the impact of so-called corridor care, where patients are treated in locations such as corridors, converted cupboards or car parks while waiting for ward beds.
The conditions – described as “animal-like” by one nurse – mean people are too often being stripped of their dignity in their darkest hours.
Nurses said they had seen women suffering miscarriages in corridors, patients being left to soil themselves and dead patients going undiscovered for hours.
Some had cared for patients in rooms usually reserved for breastfeeding, viewing rooms where relatives see their deceased relatives, and quiet rooms on psychiatric wards.
Other locations included dining, shower, counselling and bereavement rooms, cloakrooms and chairs in lounges.
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A paramedic who had also worked for 10 years as a nurse said they had “never experienced such a broken system”.
They added: “As a nurse it is heartbreaking to provide care in corridors and storage rooms where there is no humanity for anyone involved.
“I worked throughout Covid-19 and although it was a horrendous experience, this lack of care in the broken system is worse.”
Nine in 10 nurses polled said patient safety was being compromised and two thirds were delivering care in over-crowded or unsuitable settings on a daily basis.
One described struggling to respond to cardiac arrests and perform CPR when patients were slumped in chairs, in corridors or in cubicles blocked in by other trolleys.
And for some, the strain had become too much. A nurse working in the South East of England handed in their notice at the end of a shift. They said: “A 90-year-old 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. I will not work where this is a normal day to day occurrence.”
Trolley waits in A&E have reached unprecedented levels and several hospitals declared critical incidents in recent weeks as the impact of flu and other winter viruses pushed them to breaking point.
Analysis by the Lib Dems shows a record 518,000 people waited more than 12 hours from a decision to admit to actually being admitted in 2024.
But RCN general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger said the flu season must not be used as an “excuse” for the crisis.
Corridor care has never been so normalised in the NHS, she said, with many hospitals struggling for capacity even during the summer and autumn months.
Prof Ranger added: “It has become normal to put patients in all sorts of areas that I can promise you…prior to Covid would have been abhorrent and totally unacceptable.“That’s the real tragedy here, that care that would have been seen prior to Covid as shocking has been normalised.
“When you are escalated extra patients all over the place, you have nowhere to go when there are the normal winter viruses.”
Prof Ranger said there was too much talk about “spreading the risk” in the NHS, which leads to patients being passed from ambulances to overcrowded A&Es to overcrowded wards.
And she called for the report to mark “a moment in time” that triggers urgent Government action, adding: “I do not want to be here waiting three years to have this sorted out.
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“What is going to be different, that this Government is going to do now that prepares for next winter? We need action now.”
Commenting on the findings, England’s Chief Nursing Officer Duncan Burton said increasing levels of demand had “resulted in extreme pressures on services, particularly over recent months and one of the toughest winters the NHS has experienced”.
He added: “The impact this has on the experiences of patients and staff, as highlighted by the RCN report, should never be considered the standard to which the NHS aspires.
“Despite the challenges the NHS faces, we are seeing extraordinary efforts from staff who are doing everything they can to provide safe, compassionate care every day.
“As a nurse, I know how distressing it can be when you are unable to provide the very best standards of care for patients.
“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.”
This weekend it emerged that Whittington Health NHS Trust had advertised for “corridor nurses”, a move it described as an “absolute last resort”.
The Health Secretary on Wednesday insisted the Government wants to “consign corridor care to the history books”.
Wes Streeting said he would make no criticism of Whittington Hospital for trying to get the right staff in place to deliver the “best care possible in the present circumstances”.
And he told the Commons corridor care “became normalised in NHS hospitals under the previous government”.
Mr Streeting added: “I want to be clear, I will never accept or tolerate patients being treated in corridors. It is unsafe, undignified, a cruel consequence of 14 years of failure on the NHS and I am determined to consign it to the history books.
“I cannot and will not promise that there will not be patients treated in corridors next year – it will take time to undo the damage that has been done to our NHS. But that is the ambition this Government has.”