Health
Nearly 3000 NHS patients a day are treated in corridors, official data show
Key Points
Hospitals in England cared for around 90 000 patients last month—nearly 3000 a day—in corridors or other inappropriate treatment areas, new figures show. NHS England data on corridor care, published for the first time on 11 June, show how far ministers are from eradicating an “unacceptable” practice that doctors’ leaders and health analysts say has become “normalised. ”“It should be a source of national shame this has been allowed to happen to our health service in the 21st century,” said...
Hospitals in England cared for around 90 000 patients last month—nearly 3000 a day—in corridors or other inappropriate treatment areas, new figures show.NHS England data on corridor care, published for the first time on 11 June, show how far ministers are from eradicating an “unacceptable” practice that doctors’ leaders and health analysts say has become “normalised.”“It should be a source of national shame this has been allowed to happen to our health service in the 21st century,” said Den Langhor, emergency medicine lead for the BMA’s Consultants Committee. “Treating patients in corridors isn’t just inappropriate: it’s undignified and often unsafe.”NHS England describes corridor care as a “significant patient safety and experience issue”1—defined as when patients in emergency departments and inpatient wards spend more than 45 minutes in a clinically inappropriate place where they cannot be assured of essential equipment or dignity.This includes patients in emergency departments receiving treatment, those waiting...