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UK sufferers are “coming to harm” as nurses say they’re having to deal with individuals in corridors and unsuitable locations due to a “collapse in care standards”, a report stated Thursday.
Within the newest indictment of Britain’s beleaguered state-funded Nationwide Well being Service, 9 in 10 NHS nurses surveyed by the nation’s nurses union stated “patient safety is being compromised”.
Practically seven in 10 (66.8 p.c) stated they had been delivering care in “overcrowded or unsuitable places” on a “daily basis”, together with in corridors, transformed cabinets, automobile parks and even bereavement rooms.
“The experiences of over 5,000 nursing staff across the UK highlight a devastating collapse in care standards, with patients routinely coming to harm,” stated the Royal Faculty of Nursing (RCN).
The report condemns the “normalization” of so-called “corridor care”, with nurses unable to entry life-saving tools in cramped areas and sufferers even dying in corridors.
One nurse in east England stated hall care of their hospital belief was “not an exception, it’s the rule”.
Final month, some 54,000 sufferers in emergency departments in England needed to wait over 12 hours till a hospital mattress was obtainable, up 23 p.c from December 2023.
‘Dying’
Among the many RCN report testimonies are accounts of nurses treating as much as 40 sufferers ready in a hall, in addition to stories of pregnant girls miscarrying in corridors.
Some reported overcrowded corridors impeding them from giving life-saving resuscitation (CPR). One nurse recalled a affected person dying after a cardiac arrest “by the male toilet”.
One other alleged having to deal with cardiac arrests “with no crash bell, crash trolley, oxygen, defibrillator… straddling a patient doing CPR while everyone watches on”.
“This devastating testimony from frontline nursing staff shows patients are coming to harm every day”, stated RCN Common Secretary Nicola Ranger.
“Vulnerable people are being stripped of their dignity and nursing staff are being denied access to vital lifesaving equipment. We can now categorically say patients are dying in this situation,” Ranger added.
In June 2024, the RCN declared a “national emergency” over hospital overcrowding and care being delivered in unsuitable locations.
Well being Basis charity’s assistant director of coverage Tim Gardner stated file delays in emergency care “were a rarity before the pandemic, but are now the worst we have seen since records began in 2011”.
There are some 7.5 million individuals on the NHS ready listing, with greater than three million having confronted delays longer than 18 weeks for therapy.
Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was elected in July on a ticket which included fixing the NHS, rolled out a plan in the beginning of the yr which included increasing group well being facilities to scale back strain on hospitals.
Well being Secretary Wes Streeting on Wednesday stated hall care was “unsafe” and “undignified” however it could “take time to undo the damage” to the NHS.
© 2025 AFP
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Sufferers ‘harmed’ as UK hospital requirements ‘collapse’: report (2025, January 16)
retrieved 16 January 2025
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