“Horrified” nurses have declared a “national emergency” in the NHS, warning that hospital patients are “dying in corridors”.
According to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), patients are regularly treated on chairs in corridors for extended periods of time, which can sometimes last days.
Others are also receiving cancer diagnoses in public areas as well as intimate examinations, the union said.
The shocking revelations come from a survey of almost 11,000 frontline nursing staff across the UK.
Almost two in five reported delivering care in inappropriate areas, such as a corridor, when asked about their most recent shift.
And almost seven in 10 said patient privacy and dignity has been compromised.
“You wouldn’t treat a dog this way,” one nurse in the survey said.
Commenting in the survey, another nurse recounted a patient with dementia being in a corridor for hours without oxygen.
They said: “When I arrived, she was in a wheelchair on a corridor with her daughter. She was extremely agitated, crying and confused.
“This care environment for any patient, never mind with dementia, was completely inappropriate.”
The RCN’s acting general secretary, Professor Nicola Ranger, is set to declare a national emergency at the start of the union’s annual conference this week.
A report on clinical care in inappropriate areas will also be compiled by the organisation.
As reported by Sky News, the RCN is calling for mandatory reporting of patients cared for in corridors to highlight how prevalent the issue now is.
“Our once world-leading services are treating patients in car parks and store cupboards,” Prof Ranger will tell delegates.
“The elderly are languishing on chairs for hours on end and patients are dying in corridors. The horror of this situation cannot be understated.
“It is a national emergency for patient safety and today we are raising the alarm.”
She will add: “Receiving a cancer diagnosis in a public area isn’t care. It’s a nightmare for all involved.
“We need to call it out as nursing staff, and health leaders and ministers need to take responsibility.”
Corridor care is one “symptom of a system in crisis”, the RCN’s report says.
It adds that patient demand in all settings, from primary to community and social care, is outstripping workforce supply.
As previously reported by Express.co.uk, NHS figures showed that 54,308 patients were left waiting 12 or more hours to be admitted from A&E to hospital in January – a 23 percent increase from December and the second highest figure on record.