NINE out of ten UK A&E clinicians are not confident that their departments will cope this winter.
Shockingly, in a survey by The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) conducted between 7-13 November, 94% of A&E Department Clinical Leads think that patients are being put at risk due to the pressures currently being experienced.
In total, representatives from 83 hospitals across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales responded.
The results revealed:
- 87% of respondents said they aren’t confident that their department will cope well this winter;
- 83% of respondents had patients being cared for in corridors;
- 51% of respondents had patients being cared for in ambulances outside their Emergency Department;
- 94% said they feel patients are coming to harm because of conditions;
- Only one in 10 respondents (11%) said they felt better prepared this winter than they did last year.
It comes just weeks after the government unveiled its budget (30 October 2024), which failed to include any additional support to mitigate the looming winter crisis Emergency Departments are facing – and this is just days after the performance figures for A&Es in England indicated another looming winter crisis.
President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Adrian Boyle, said: ‘This is a stark warning from those on the front line.
‘Clinicians are worried and patients are unsafe. Winter is coming, and it looks like we are facing a massive crisis in every part of the UK.
‘We cannot just ignore winter and our patients. Our patients, each one vulnerable and sick in need of care and comfort, each one someone’s mum, dad, gran or grandad, condemned to degrading and dehumanising so called “corridor care”.
‘This euphemism, in reality, means people being stranded for hours on trolleys or chairs. And as every hour ticks by, the associated risk of those people dying as a result increases. Just last month, 162,931 people in England alone endured stays of 12+hours in an A&E department.
‘We speak of percentages and numbers but let’s remember we are talking about people, and a workforce running on fumes trying to do their best.
‘All this with the backdrop of a government telling them they need to work harder and more effectively, but which has not invested any more resources for these winter months.
‘In the budget there was nothing to address or ease the pressures in A&Es this winter, no increase in bed numbers, no added support for social care which could keep people out of hospital in the first place or allow them to leave when they are well enough.’
Responding to the survey, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: ‘Corridor care isn’t care at all. It’s unsafe, undignified and demoralising for the nursing staff forced to deliver it.
‘Emergency doctors are right to sound the alarm, but the reality is this crisis isn’t limited to A&E, with patients crammed into unacceptable spaces across entire hospitals.
‘Ministers have a duty to eradicate this dangerous practice. They must introduce mandatory reporting of all instances of corridor care in the NHS and regularly publish it. The public deserves transparency over care standards.’