The unacceptable practice of corridor care at NHS hospitals needs to end - Jayne Dowle

Wes Streeting should save his tears and take immediate action on the crisis arising from hospital ‘corridor care’, highlighted forcefully in a joint letter sent to him this week by 15 key health care and patient groups, including Healthwatch England, the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing.

As several hospital trusts declare critical incidents because A&E departments are overwhelmed, the Health Secretary has spoken of his shame at patients being treated in corridors, and his heartbreak at ambulance crews delivering terminally ill patients to hospital to die because there is nowhere else for them to go.

The letter calls for total transparency on how many patients, where and for how long, are being treated in hospital corridors or other unsuitable and potentially dangerous places.

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NHS England states the delivery of care in ‘temporary escalation spaces (TES)’ is ‘not acceptable’, the letter points out. However, official guidance “stops short of mandating trusts to report instances of such care and the impact it has on patients, staff and relatives”.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting looks on as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer takes questions from the media. PIC: Leon Neal/PA WireHealth Secretary Wes Streeting looks on as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer takes questions from the media. PIC: Leon Neal/PA Wire
Health Secretary Wes Streeting looks on as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer takes questions from the media. PIC: Leon Neal/PA Wire

This is “a significant omission, effectively continuing to hide the issue from the public, whilst in some cases silencing the staff forced to routinely deliver compromised care.”

The letter reminds Streeting that last year, he pledged to “consign corridor care to history where it belongs”. However, the practice, as these health and medical professionals, charities and trade unions remind him, “has become a year-round scourge in our hospitals, as unsafe and undignified treatment in inappropriate spaces has become increasingly normalised”.

Maybe now he will persuade PM Keir Starmer to hold off talking about rolling out community hubs for diagnostic tests and promising a questionable ’10 Year Plan’ for health, and support immediate action instead.

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Harsh winter weather and a nationwide flu outbreak has heaped pressure on A&Es, but as this letter points out, corridor care has become sadly the norm whatever the time of year.

NHS England statistics show that last year was the busiest yet for A&E and ambulance services.

So dire is the situation, one hospital, The Whittington in Archway, north London, is even advertising for nurses to work specifically in corridors.

Corridor care means nurses are unable to access oxygen or even plug sockets for medical equipment. Patients are clearly left in danger, out of the sight of staff and out of the reach of emergency call bells, as well as subject to untold distress and lack of dignity.

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If you have found yourself in an overcrowded A&E, you will appreciate the true horror of this. I’ve been in hospitals which have resembled versions of hell, patients calling out in pain, waiting for hours and hours to be seen, left alone simply because there is not enough space or staff to attend to them efficiently.

My mother, seen by a paramedic at home last summer and found to be suffering from an infection, was taken directly to A&E rather than wait for a GP appointment. It took seven hours for her to be transferred to a hospital bed, where she spent the next six weeks, before moving to a care home. Each case like this demands so much of the NHS and subsequently social care. And there are millions of them.

Critics argue that much of the fault lies with yawning gulfs in intermediate care, such as the old cottage hospitals or convalescent facilities – for patients who are not fit enough to be sent directly home – and social care, allowing older and vulnerable patients to leave and be properly looked after.

Streeting cannot ignore this. He cannot ignore either the warning issued by former health minister Lord Darzi, who said that the NHS was in “serious trouble” after carrying out a flash nine-week review for the new government last year. Darzi warned that the NHS will not be fixed without a solution for social care.

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Streeting knows this. We all know this, but instead of getting immediately down to business, his department has commissioned yet another independent review of social care, led by Baroness Casey of Blackstock. This comes in the wake of the 2011 Dilnot review, largely ignored by previous Conservative governments and dismissed by Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves as too expensive to implement.

Although Casey’s review is expected to recommend ­medium-term improvements by 2026, it will not set out how to organise and fund care services until 2028, a year before the next election.

This is far too long to wait. First steps must be taken now, and we need all the facts in front of us, starting with what happens at hospital admission.

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