The government has been urged to introduce mandatory reporting on care in inappropriate spaces, such as in corridors, amid a surge in demand for healthcare services this winter.
A coalition of nursing and healthcare bodies has written to the health and social care secretary demanding the government commits to transparency on the ‘true extent of corridor care’.
And together they highlighted that a lack of staff and funding within primary, community and social care settings was contributing to the issue of care in inappropriate spaces.
Signed by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Queen’s Institute of Nursing (QNI), the Foundation of Nursing Studies and others, the letter warned Wes Streeting that corridor care in hospitals had become ‘a year-round scourge’ and that this ‘unsafe and undignified’ practice had become ‘increasingly normalised’.
‘This winter the NHS is facing the inevitable surge in demand. Health and social care professionals and patients, their relatives and carers, are rightly worried about what the coming weeks and months may bring,’ the letter said.
‘As a coalition of trade unions, professional bodies, charities and patient groups, we are clear that treating patients in corridors, on chairs and other inappropriate spaces is in no way acceptable and must end.’
It continued: ‘For staff, this means being forced to deliver compromised care, unable to access oxygen, suction or even plug sockets. This causes moral distress and ultimately, moral injury.
‘For patients, it puts them in danger, out of the sight of staff and out of the reach of emergency call bells. It represents a serious deprivation of privacy and dignity.’
The bodies said they recognised the ‘pressures which drive corridor “care” in hospitals, including a lack of staff and historic failings to fund prevention services, community services, primary care and social care’.
And it said the government’s incoming 10-Year Health Plan would ‘provide an opportunity to turn this situation around, shifting care from hospital to community’.
‘But in the here and now, healthcare workers and patients need reassurance that their safety is being taken seriously this winter,’ the letter added.
‘We are therefore urging the government to commit to transparency on the true extent of corridor care by committing to publish provider-level data on all incidences of care delivered in temporary environments, announcing this by the time of the NHS Board meeting on 4 February.
‘Patients and staff deserve honest and open accountability about the extent of care delivered in inappropriate spaces.’
The bodies suggested that current guidance ‘stops short of mandating trusts’ to report instances of care in ‘temporary escalation spaces’ (TES) and the impact of doing so.
‘We believe this to be a significant omission, effectively continuing to hide the issue from the public, whilst in some cases silencing the staff forced to routinely deliver compromised care,’ the letter said.
‘It leaves the NHS and government without accurate data to understand how many patients are affected, why and for how long, and the extent to which it harms care outcomes.
‘Mandatory reporting about incidents of care in inappropriate spaces, including TES, must be implemented by the UK government to NHS England, in partnership with local NHS Trusts.’
It said such data should be released publicly on a regular basis and form part of NHS England’s winter situation report data series and monthly performance statistics release.
‘These measures will provide crucial transparency of care standards, accountability for patient safety and invaluable data to support the eradication of this unacceptable practice,’ the letter said.
It added: ‘You rightly identified that the willingness to speak “hard truths” will be central to turning NHS services around.
‘We ask that these same principles be applied to the issue of corridor care, ensuring patients, relatives and staff are given the full picture.
‘As we continue through yet another difficult winter, we urge you to take the action necessary to prioritise patient safety and the wellbeing of staff.’
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘It is shocking that corridor care has become a normal feature in our hospitals.
‘Despite the best efforts of staff, patients are receiving unacceptable standards of treatment.’
They added: ‘In our first six months, we’ve ended the strikes so staff are on the frontline not the picket line, introduced the new RSV vaccine, and we have vaccinated more people against flu than last winter. It will take time to fix our broken NHS, but it can be done.’
Concerns over winter infections have ramped up in recent weeks, with flu cases in hospitals reportedly flooding the NHS early this winter.
At last year’s RCN Congress, general practice nurses warned they had been forced to turn cleaning cupboards into clinic rooms and were struggling to take on new nursing students because of a lack of appropriate space and buildings.
In October, the government announced it had ‘earmarked’ £100m to upgrading GP practice buildings in a move which it said will boost productivity and support the delivery of more patient appointments.
