On the first day of RCN Congress, the union releases a new report on care in inappropriate settings and calls for corridor care to be eradicated from health and care settings.
On the first day of RCN Congress, the union will declare a national emergency as it releases a new report on the topic of clinical care being delivered in inappropriate crowded areas and calls for corridor care to be eradicated from health and care settings.
In her keynote speech, Acting General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger will highlight how corridor care is ‘a symptom of a system in crisis’, with patient demand in all settings, from primary to community and social care, outstripping workforce supply and resulting in patients being forced to turn to hospitals.
In the RCN’s recent survey of nursing and midwifery staff on corridor care, 45% of respondents in Wales agreed with the statement that clinical care took place in an inappropriate environment (e.g. an additional bed in a bay, waiting room, a corridor or a location not designed for patients).
Helen Whyley, Executive Director of RCN Wales, said:
“On my visits to clinical workplaces throughout Wales, I am witnessing an NHS in crisis, held together by dedicated nurses doing their best to keep patients safe.
“Due to overcrowding, emergency departments are often bursting at the seams with extra trolleys in areas that are not equipped for clinical care and patients being sat in chairs for days and nights on end.
“This isn’t just a problem within emergency departments though; to ease the overcrowding it is now everyday practice to ‘board’ extra patients on wards, often in the middle of ward areas, in fire escapes and in corridors with no extra staff allocated to look after them.
“Nursing staff are doing what they always do: finding their way around problems to provide the best care that they can for their patients in difficult circumstances. But they are experiencing moral distress and burnout. They are upset that they cannot provide the dignity and fundamentals of care that their patients require, and they’re worried about some of the tough decisions they must make.
“RCN Wales is calling for the Welsh government to act immediately and eradicate corridor care before the winter.”
Sara Morgan, Senior Lecturer at University of South Wales and RCN Emergency Care Forum member for Wales said:
“Patient flow is vital to the safe management of emergency departments (EDs). Overcrowding in EDs leads to long waits for assessment, delayed ambulance offload times and ultimately safe, timely and efficient care is compromised.
“But patient flow must mean the right patient being moved to the right care environment at the right time.
“It is vital to ensure primary and community care services are accessible and utilised to prevent unnecessary ED admissions. Senior decision makers need to be working on the ED front door offering support in streaming and redirection.
“We need an NHS that is able to deal with the fluctuation in demands, with a flexible workforce. There needs to be a system change with the Welsh government investing in both hospital capacity and social care”.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Read the RCN’s report, Corridor Care: unsafe, undignified, unacceptable, which includes why corridor care happens in Wales.
Anecdotes from nursing staff in Wales:
- “Because of bed shortages, patients sleep in chairs all night in the clinical decision unit, which is meant to close at 8pm. Sometimes we’re able to get spare trolleys from theatre. Some patients resort to sleeping on the floor of the unit. If any of these patients were to go into cardiac arrest, we’d be unable to get the emergency trolley into the room. We are constantly working short staff and high numbers of agencies. We are working under tremendous pressure and stress and it's clear there is serious issues regarding patent safety”.
- “Our patients are being cared for in areas that are not equipped for clinical care, they often have little or no privacy, there are no curtains to draw for intimate examinations or sensitive conversations and no access to piped oxygen or suction in an emergency.”
- “Some patients, including those who are elderly and vulnerable, have difficulty accessing the care they require such as pressure relief to avoid pressure ulcers, washing facilities and food and drink.”
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is the voice of nursing across the UK and is the largest professional union of nursing staff in the world with over half a million members in the UK, including around 30,500 members in Wales. The RCN promotes the interests of nurses and patients on a wide range of issues and helps shape healthcare policy by working closely with the Government and other trade unions, professional bodies, and voluntary organisations.
For more information, contact the RCN Wales communications and media team on 02920 680 769 or mediawales@rcn.org.uk
Follow us: Facebook – @RCNWales | Instagram – @rcn_wales | X – @RCNWales
View all press releases at rcn.org.uk/wales/Wales-News/Press
