NHS patients are enduring a “broken system” of corridor care, new findings from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) reveal.
The RCN, which surveyed 436 nurses this month, revealed the continued prevalence of poor care.
Shocking accounts included a patient left in a chair for four days and another who tragically died after choking undetected in a corridor.
Nurses also described holding up white sheets to protect patient dignity during intimate procedures.
In one particularly distressing instance, an elderly patient was forced to eat next to someone vomiting due to severe overcrowding in a hospital corridor.
The union warned that these “collapsing care standards” are pushing NHS staff morale “almost past the point of no return,” underscoring that such inadequate care remains a persistent issue.
A nurse working in the NHS in south-west England said: “I imagine patients feel deeply embarrassed, objectified, judged, uncared for, feel a burden on a broken system, wishing they had never bothered to come in and would rather have taken the risk of dying at home than go through the torture. Because that’s what we subject them to, a type of torture.”
Another nurse in the South said: “We would not treat animals like this in a veterinary practice, so why in a hospital?”
Nursing staff told the RCN they treat patients in freezing corridors, dining rooms, staff kitchens, offices, seminar rooms, family rooms, deceased viewing rooms and discharge lounges.
A nurse in the South said they suffered nightmares after a patient died in a lounge which had been turned into a ward.
Another nurse in the West Midlands said: “I go home and worry about my patients and my colleagues being forced to deliver this undignified care. I worry about it a lot and it is something that causes pre-shift anxiety.”
In the East of England, a nurse said: “It’s freezing cold in the corridor. No oxygen, no monitors, nothing to facilitate nursing care or anything.”
A nurse in an NHS hospital in north-west England said: “It breaks my heart being in work and there being a patient, usually elderly, on the corridor and coming back two days later and them still being there.”
One nurse in London said elderly patients regularly spent 24 hours on trolleys in corridors and as a result develop incontinence and pick up respiratory viruses which have led to “extreme critical incidents including death”.
A nurse in Yorkshire said a terminally ill patient spent a week in a “temporary escalation space”, before being moved into a side room where they died. The nurse said: “I won’t ever forget that.”
Another, working for an NHS board in Scotland, said: “It’s very stressful and distressing at times. There’s a sense of frustration and hopelessness.”
A nurse working in an NHS hospital in the South East said: “The system is broken and so are we.”
Another nurse in the South East said: “Personally, my anxiety is at an all-time high and I will not sleep the day before shift and keep checking online to see the live waiting times to try and prepare myself before I arrive. It’s just awful and there is no end in sight.”
RCN general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger called on the Government to take control by investing in more beds, nurses, community services and social care.
“This new testimony from nursing staff reveals once again the devastating human consequences of corridor care, with patients forced to endure conditions which have no place in our NHS,” she said.
“The fact remains that there can be no safe, dignified care delivered in a corridor, store room or dining room, but that has become the norm.
“The tragedy is that every day, people are coming to harm just when they need excellent care the most. That is heartbreaking and deeply troubling.
“Nursing staff declared a national emergency on the issue of corridor care over 18 months ago, but far from being eradicated as a practice it’s become a permanent fixture, spreading throughout hospitals and beyond emergency departments.
“It’s taking a terrible toll on staff, but ministers mustn’t allow them to lose hope.”
A YouGov survey of 2,150 UK adults found 69 per cent believed the Government’s pledge to eradicate corridor care in England by the “end of parliament” is “too slow”.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “No one should receive care in a corridor – the situation we inherited is unacceptable and undignified, and we are determined to end it.
“Staff, including nurses, are under immense pressure, and we recognise the dedication and professionalism of those keeping patients safe and delivering the best care they can.
“We have taken immediate steps to address these issues including investing £450 million to expand urgent and emergency care services, expanding vaccination programmes, preparing for winter earlier than ever before, building 40 new same-day emergency care centres and 15 mental health crisis centres.
“At the same time, NHS England is working closely with trusts to reduce variation, tackle inconsistencies, improve data collection and reduce discharge delays, alongside social care colleagues.”
Rory Deighton, acute and community care director at the NHS Confederation, said: “Health care leaders know that corridor care is undignified and can often be unsafe and frustrating for patients and their families. They also know how the practice is now taking its toll on staff.
“However, patient flow is a whole-system issue, of which corridor care is the highly visible tip of the iceberg.
“The NHS has been starved of capital investment for more than a decade and is dogged by crumbling infrastructure and outdated equipment.
“There is simply not enough space to house and treat the number of patients who need its care.
“Health leaders will continue to do all they can to tackle the root causes of corridor care, including trying to ensure flow through the system by improving patient discharge, working with local authorities to improve social care provision, and prioritising vulnerable older patients at the front door through increased frailty screening.”
