A support worker stands in a corridor of NHS Seacole Centre at Headley Court, Surrey, May 2020
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THE normalisation of corridor care has left A&Es “in big trouble,” the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has said.
Dr Ian Higginson said that there should be “howls of outrage” about deaths linked to long emergency department waits but patients are no longer surprised to be cared for in trolleys.
“Emergency departments across the UK are in big trouble at the moment,” he said.
“The main problem we have is that we have patients in our corridors – we’re full to bursting.
“And that’s because there aren’t enough beds in our hospitals for us to admit our patients to, and that makes it really difficult for us to look after our patients properly.”
The number of hospital beds in Britain has more than halved since 1980, with a drop from 350,000 to 140,000 in England alone, though the population has grown by more than 10 million since then.
RCEM estimates suggest more than 16,600 patient deaths are linked to very long waits in A&E for a hospital bed last year – the equivalent of approximately 320 deaths a week.
Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr John Puntis said: “The RCEM is doing all NHS users an important service by pointing out to government the huge numbers of avoidable deaths resulting from corridor care.
“It is unfortunate that politicians are arguing, against all the evidence, that current approaches to improve performance are working.”
BMA consultants committee co-chair Dr Helen Neary said: “Corridor care persists because of years of underinvestment in staff and services across hospitals, the community and social care and now we are seeing the consequences. Staff are undervalued, burned out and leaving, and patients are left without dignity or safety.”
Official NHS figures show the number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments from a decision to admit to actually being admitted in England stood at 50,648 in November.
An NHS England spokesperson said: “It is totally unacceptable that patients are waiting over 12 hours to be admitted to a hospital bed, and in some cases, this wait is occurring in corridors.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting pledged to end corridor care in hospitals in England by the next general election earlier this month.
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “No one should receive care in a corridor – the situation we inherited is unacceptable and undignified, and we are determined to end it.”
