‘Devastating collapse in standards’ in NHS amid ‘corridor care crisis’ – report

By Craig Meighan, Reporter16th January 2025News ScotlandCare Standards, Hospitals, Integrated Care, News Scotland, NHS, Nursing / Midwifery

Scotland’s NHS has been hit with a “devastating collapse in care standards”, with patients “routinely coming to harm” and unable to access basic services, a report by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has found.

The nursing union said “demoralised” staff across the nation’s hospitals have witnessed patients going into cardiac arrest while forced to lay in corridors due to a lack of beds.

The RCN said there was a “corridor care crisis” in hospitals across the UK.

Its survey of NHS staff includes testimonies from more than 5,000 nurses in the UK, with 500 of those being from Scotland.

The RCN said its 400-page report must be a “wake-up call” for the country’s political leaders.

Its report found staff in Scotland are caring for multiple patients in a single corridor and unable to access oxygen, cardiac monitors, suction and other lifesaving equipment.

They say patients are being left with no access to bathroom facilities or buzzers, with nurses forced to deliver personal care to incontinent patients with no privacy.

Nine in 10 of those surveyed said patient safety is being compromised.

A Scottish nurse said: “Department with capacity for 13 beds, we had 40 in, with patients on chairs having treatments administered, also sitting in the waiting room on cardiac monitors, using privacy screens to put around patients to use the bedpan.”

One unnamed member of staff said they were forced to clean an elderly incontinent patient in the charge nurse’s office.

Another added: “A very confused patient was brought to the corridor. This patient wandered the corridors and was found in different areas of the ward multiple times.

“A bed was eventually found in a temporary area which was an office usually used for out-patients appointments, it still had the computer desk set up and had no window or toilet.”

A nursing support worker said: “My last shift, I went into a full ward and 34 patients were referred to come into the ward, 10 of which were in the corridor already waiting.

“One of the patients had a stroke, another with an increased oxygen requirement and several with the flu. Extremely unsafe as patients kept on arriving with nowhere to move our already admitted patients to.”

The RCN, the UK’s largest nursing union, said staffing levels have not been increased to cover the rise in patient numbers.

The scale of the issue, the report stated, has prompted concerns about infection prevention and control as patients are “crammed into tight spaces next to one another”.

One nurse said: “Flu-positive patients are being transferred to wards before rooms become available. Patients with flu then being cared for in ward corridors next to other vulnerable patients.”

The RCN said corridor care has become normalised in NHS hospitals across the UK, as nursing staff report elderly and vulnerable patients receiving “undignified and unsafe” treatment.

Almost seven in 10 (66.81%) nurses surveyed reported delivering care in overcrowded or unsuitable places – like corridors, offices, converted cupboards and even car parks – on a daily basis.

RCN Scotland director Colin Poolman said: “This report makes for distressing reading and should be a wake-up call for the Scottish Government.

“The impact goes far beyond the doors of emergency departments, with nursing staff across many acute settings desperately struggling as they are forced to create space in clinical areas for additional unstaffed beds or provide patient care in corridors and other inappropriate locations.

“This is completely unacceptable for patient safety and staff wellbeing. No patient should ever have to suffer the risk or indignity of being cared for in such a way – yet it has been allowed to become normal practice.

“The Scottish Government must commit to publishing the data on exactly how many patients are being cared for in these circumstances. The public deserves to know what is happening to patient safety.

“They must also commit to long-term action and investment focused on addressing the nursing workforce shortages and building sustainable capacity both within in the NHS and, most importantly, within community and social care.”

British Medical Association chair of council Professor Philip Banfield said: “Corridor care should never ever be ‘the norm’ in any hospital and yet, as this report reveals, our patients are being looked after, not in beds, on wards or in proper cubicles, but in places which are unsafe and inhumane.

“Doctors, and now our nursing colleagues, are almost beyond despair as they struggle with the impossible task of trying vainly to look after scores of sick and dying people, left for hours on end in unsanitary and unacceptable conditions.”

Scottish Conservative health spokesperson Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP said: “This devastating report must be an urgent wake-up call for SNP ministers.

“The scandalous failure of successive SNP health secretaries has left nurses to deal with complete chaos in hospital corridors.”

Scottish Labour Health spokeswoman Dame Jackie Baillie said: “This harrowing report is a reminder of how far standards have fallen on the SNP’s watch.

“Our nurses are as hard-working and committed as ever, but they cannot defend the NHS against the SNP’s mismanagement forever.”

Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “I want to apologise to anyone whose experience of the NHS has fallen short of the standards we all expect from our health service.

“A&E departments are under pressure due to high occupancy and delays with patients who need extra support before going home, which affects the flow of patients from A&E to inpatient wards.

“But we are determined to drive improvements, reduce waiting lists and tackle delayed discharge.”