Tag: RCN report

Corridor care: ‘Devastating testimony’ shows patients are coming to harm

RCN report reveals harrowing statements from thousands of nursing staff, showing how widespread the issue is across the UK

Patients dying in corridors, lack of equipment and unsafe practices are the findings of a new RCN report documenting the experiences of more than 5,000 NHS nursing staff.

Almost 7 in 10 (66.8%) respondents to an RCN survey said they’re delivering care in over-crowded or unsuitable places – such as corridors, converted cupboards and even car parks – on a daily basis.

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 said they cannot provide adequate or timely CPR to patients having heart attacks.

More than 9 in 10 (90.8%) of those surveyed said patient safety is being compromised.

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.”

A nurse working in the South East region said: “We’ve 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.”

More than a quarter of nursing staff surveyed said they weren’t told the corridor they were providing care in was classed as a “temporary escalation space”, as described by the NHS in England.

This means risk protocols and additional measures may not be in place to ease pressures and protect patients.

Nursing staff also report cancer patients being put in corridors and other inappropriate spaces. In the South West region, a nurse said: “It was a cancer patient whose immunity was very low because of her treatment. She should’ve 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.”

Our report follows a letter sent to the Westminster government and NHS England from an RCN-led coalition, calling on officials to publish how many patients are being cared for in corridors and other inappropriate places.

Nicola added: “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 building a strong nursing workforce.”

Read our full report to discover the extent of corridor care across the UK, as told by our members.

Whenever you see concerning practices in the workplace, including corridor care, raise a concern in line with your employer’s policy. Raising concerns isn’t always easy, but it’s the right thing to do.

Read our guide on how to do this, created to help nursing staff based in both NHS and independent health and care settings.

You can find a package of resources to support you on our website, including a template letter, and member checklist to help with raising concerns and more.

Corridor care: Royal College of Nursing declares ‘national emergency’ and demands political action

Nursing staff are regularly forced to provide care to patients in chairs and corridors, compromising patient safety and dignity. RCN IS asking members to call it out and join their fight to eradicate the practice.

An RCN report reveals more than 1 in 3 (37%) nursing staff working in typical hospital settings delivered care in inappropriate settings, such as corridors, on their last shift. Our survey of almost 11,000 frontline nursing staff across the UK shows the extent to which corridor care has been normalised.

Patients are regularly treated on chairs in corridors for extended periods of time, sometimes days. We say that these instances must now be determined as ‘Never Events’ in NHS services, in the same way that having the wrong limb operated on or a foreign object being left inside a patients’ body already are. 

We’re asking for mandatory national reporting of patients being cared for in corridors, to reveal the extent of hospital overcrowding, as part of a plan to eradicate the practice. We also need members to raise concerns when care in inappropriate settings takes place. 

In a new RCN report, Corridor Care: Unsafe, Undignified, Unacceptable, our survey findings and member testimonies show the full grave picture of corridor care across the UK.

Of those forced to deliver care in inappropriate settings, over half (53%) say it left them without access to life-saving equipment including oxygen and suction. More than two-thirds (67%) said the care they delivered in public compromised patient privacy and dignity.

Thousands of nursing staff report how corridor care has become the norm in almost every corner of a typical hospital setting. Heavy patient flow and lack of capacity sees nursing staff left with no space to place patients. What would have been an emergency measure is now routine.

The report says corridor care is “a symptom of a system in crisis”, with patient demand in all settings, from primary to community and social care, outstripping workforce supply. The result is patients left unable to access care near their homes and instead being forced to turn to hospitals. Poor population health and a lack of investment in prevention is exacerbating the problem, the report says.

Professor Nicola Ranger, Acting RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, said: “This is a tragedy for our profession. Our once world-leading services are treating patients in car parks and store cupboards.

“The elderly are languishing on chairs for hours and patients are dying in corridors. The horror of this situation cannot be understated. It is a national emergency for patient safety and today we are raising the alarm. 

“Treating patients in corridors used to be an exceptional circumstance. Now it is a regular occurrence and a symptom of a system in crisis. 

“Patients shouldn’t have to end up at the doors of our emergency departments because they can’t get a GP appointment, a visit from a district nurse or a social care package. But that is the reality. Corridor care is a scourge in our hospitals, but we know the solution is to invest in our entire health and care system – and its nursing workforce.”

Don’t allow corridor care to become normalised, call it out. Find out more about how to raise a concern.