HEALTH unions united today to end treating patients in corridors, chairs, waiting areas and other inappropriate places in Welsh hospitals.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the British Medical Association (BMA) in Wales have joined forces to address the alarming state of corridor care in Welsh hospitals and healthcare services. 

The two unions launched a public petition urging the Welsh government to take immediate action to end the practice on the day a major report on the Welsh NHS  was published with 29 recommendations to the government.

RCN Wales’s Helen Whyley said: “I have travelled across Wales and witnessed people in pain, confused and frightened, with no privacy, no dignity and no proper care environment. 

“Treating patients in corridors and other inappropriate areas is not nursing — it is crisis management in a failing system.”

BMA’s Welsh Consultants’ chairman Stephen Kelly said: “This is dangerous and is putting patients’ lives at risk and we urge the Welsh government to work with us to put a stop to this practice.”

A Welsh government spokesperson said: “We do not endorse routine care in non-clinical environments where patient privacy or dignity is compromised. 

“However, there are occasions when the NHS faces exceptional pressures during high-demand periods.”

A group of independent experts have set out 29 recommendations in a report published today designed to strengthen the NHS in Wales.

The Welsh government has accepted the recommendations made by the Ministerial Advisory Group on NHS performance and productivity.

The review, led by Sir David Sloman, includes suggestions for improving waiting list management, removing unwarranted variation in treatment, using national and regional plans to establish sustainable services and enhancing leadership within NHS Wales.

Mr Miles said: “The message in the report is very clear: we have a significant challenge in performance and productivity. 

“That demands a step change in our approach so we can improve the services that the public receives.”

Plaid Cymru’s health spokesman Mabon ap Gwynfor said: “From record high waiting lists, to some of the worst cancer survival rates in the developed world, the evidence that the NHS has completely lost its way after 25 years of Labour is plain for all to see.”