Streeting pledges to end 'corridor care' by next election
The Health Secretary has pledged to end corridor care in hospitals in England by the next general election, “if not sooner”.
Wes Streeting said it is not acceptable that people are being treated on trolleys in hospital corridors.
It comes as leading nurses said there has been “insufficient urgency” to tackle the “crisis of corridor care”.
Mr Streeting said the issue is being tackled with “urgency, focus and attention”.
Earlier this year, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) set out how patients are being treated in “distressing and undignified” circumstances, risking their safety.
Since then, the RCN said there has been recognition of the issue by the Government and health leaders, but it warned there is a “potential for a repeat of the unacceptable scale of corridor care” as the NHS enters its busy winter period.
This could be “more dangerous for patients” and they are being “set up to suffer”, the RCN said.
The college said it has “serious questions” about the readiness of the NHS going into winter.
Asked when he would “consign corridor care to history where it belongs”, Mr Streeting told LBC Radio yesterday: “Well, I want to do that over the course of this Parliament.
“That’s where I want to be. If I can get it done sooner, I will.
“We can’t have people being treated on trolleys in corridors.
“And, in fact, I’ve seen some reports over the last year or so of things like Costa Coffee outlets and the reception area being used to hold patients, and I do not think that’s acceptable.”
During his round of interviews, Mr Streeting said that he has “had it” with the British Medical Association (BMA) amid doctors strikes in the run up to Christmas.
The Health Secretary said there had been an outbreak of “juvenile delinquency” at the doctors’ union.
It comes as new YouGov polling found that the next round of strikes by doctors do not have public support, with Britons opposed to resident doctors going on strike by 53 per cent to 38 per cent.
This is the highest level of opposition to such strikes recorded by YouGov to date.
Resident doctors in England will strike for five days from 7am on December 17 until 7am on December 22 as they continue their fight with the Government over training and pay.
It follows similar strike action by resident doctors, formerly called junior doctors, between November 14 and November 19, and other previous strikes.
Mr Streeting was asked if he had “had it” with doctors’ unions.
He replied: “With the BMA, certainly. I mean, whether it’s the rhetoric and the behaviour of the BMA around general practice, whether it is yet another round of unnecessary strike action being proposed by resident doctors who’ve had a 28.9 per cent pay rise, we’ve seen an outbreak in the British Medical Association of juvenile delinquency, and it is irresponsible, because we know that the NHS is under real pressure.”
He said that “since we came to office, there are real signs of green shoots of recovery, whether that’s on the waiting list, whether that’s on patient satisfaction with general practice, whether that’s the investment we’re putting into urgent emergency care – we could be leaning into this together.
“Instead, the BMA is not only holding back the NHS’s recovery and inflicting damage on patients, it’s also self-defeating for their members who are having to work in these conditions.”