The NHS must treat its ‘corridor care’ crisis as a wake-up call
The NHS must treat its ‘corridor care’ crisis as a wake-up call
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Editorial: The results of a nurses’ survey show that patients are routinely receiving care in hospital corridors and waiting areas. The situation is appalling – but health service managers must now examine how their problems are caused not so much by underfunding as by disorganisation.
The phrase “corridor care” has come to sum up the state of the crisis in the National Health Service. As we report today, patients are being put on trolleys in front of vending machines or fire escapes, or on chairs rather than trolleys, and are sometimes having CPR administered on the floor because there are no other flat surfaces available. All of these occurrences are now part of the normal functioning of some of our hospitals.
A survey by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) finds that nine in 10 nurses report that they are delivering care in inappropriate settings such as corridors at least once a month, while nearly seven in 10 say they have to do so daily. As the NHS experiences a worse than usual surge in winter flu cases, Professor Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the RCN, says she has “no doubt at all” that this crisis is costing lives.
In all the new government’s talk of milestones, targets and missions, the NHS is perhaps the most urgent and immediate priority for Sir Keir Starmer. He and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, have been rightly cautious about overclaiming improvements – and the winter crisis has indeed made it impossible to detect any change for the better.
