Joint letter to the Health Secretary on corridor care

Rt. Hon. Wes Streeting MP
Secretary of State
Department for Health and Social Care
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0EU

Dear Secretary of State,

Last year, we were pleased to see you pledge to ‘consign corridor care to history where it belongs’. The practice has become a year-round scourge in our hospitals, as unsafe and undignified treatment in inappropriate spaces has 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.

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. 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. Like you, we understand 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.

The 10 Year Plan will 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.

Read the full letter.