‘CARE delivered in corridors and other non-clinical spaces is unsafe, undignified and unacceptable,’ the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said yesterday in response to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s (RCEM) new position statement on corridor care.
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, continued: ‘It violates the privacy of patients and leaves staff without access to essential, life-saving equipment.
‘There are no circumstances under which it constitutes good, safe care.
‘What once used to be an exceptional circumstance, is now happening regularly in our hospitals.
‘Health leaders and the Secretary of State must waste no time in eradicating this shocking practice in the interests of patients and staff.’
The RCEM warned that new NHS guidance on how patients should be treated in hospital corridors ‘normalises a dangerous situation’ insisting that caring for patients in corridors should only ever be a last resort.
NHS England has begun to use the jargon term ‘temporary escalation spaces’ to describe corridor care.
The RCEM condemned the use of such a term and said that it is not possible to give safe and good quality care in cupboards and walkways.
RCEM president Dr Adrian Boyle and the vice-president Dr Ian Higginson said: ‘It is distressing for patients, particularly the old and the vulnerable, to be in open, noisy, brightly lit, often cold areas.
‘So-called “corridor care” is a result of overcrowding, which leads to extended A&E stays that we know contribute to avoidable death.
‘We and our members cannot, and will not, accept this situation.
‘Rather than advising how to deal with overcrowding, all effort should be focused on preventing it.’
Meanwhile, the RCN warned yesterday that 32,000 nursing students could quit nursing by 2029.
‘More than 32,000 student nurses could drop out of their courses by the end of the next parliament, enough to fill every nursing vacancy in the NHS in England,’ their report said yesterday.
Financial pressures, struggling services and worsening pay prospects are to blame, the College said.