NHS patients dying in corridors and going undiscovered for hours, damning report finds
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Patients are dying in corridors and sometimes going undiscovered for hours, while sick people are being left to soil themselves, according to a damning report into the state of the NHS. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) published new findings into what is going on in England's hospitals as staff try to manage the number of people needing care.
The "harrowing" report tells of patients sitting for days in chairs - so-called "chair care" - due to a lack of beds, patients piling up in corridors, delays to treatment and the elderly unable to get help due to no call bells and not enough staff. The RCN called for immediate Government action to end "corridor care", which it says has become normalised and is not just occurring in the winter months.
The experiences of more than 5,000 nursing staff across the UK, with more than 4,000 from England, contained within the 460-page report highlight how patients are "routinely coming to harm" and deaths are happening. Testimonies from nurses in the report include:.
- Patients regularly treated in bathrooms, shower areas, cloakrooms, bereavement rooms and even viewing rooms (where families visit dead relatives). - "Patients have died on trollies and chairs in the corridor and waiting room. All the fundamentals of care have broken down - we are no better than a developing world casualty.".
