RCN Wales says patients are being left in chairs and hospital corridors for hours as England begins releasing national figures
WALES is being urged to begin publishing hospital corridor care data after England released its first national figures exposing the scale of patients being treated in inappropriate spaces.
RCN Wales said the Welsh Government cannot properly tackle unsafe care if it is not routinely measured or publicly reported.
The call follows the publication of corridor care data by NHS England, which RCN Wales said provides a clearer picture of the scale of the issue in English hospitals for the first time.
The union is calling for the Welsh Government to publish monthly corridor care data by health board, agree a national data set, and release the first figures as soon as possible.
‘Unsafe and unacceptable’
Nicola Williams, Executive Director of RCN Wales, said: “Today’s publication of corridor care data in England demonstrates why transparency matters. We cannot tackle a problem we do not fully understand and are not measuring.
“Corridor care is unsafe, undignified and unacceptable. Nurses across Wales have repeatedly raised concerns about patients being treated in inappropriate spaces because of pressures on the health and care system.”
Ms Williams said she had recently visited a number of hospitals in Wales where she saw patients in chairs, on trolleys in corridors, and squeezed into overcrowded areas not designed for patient care.
She said some patients had been there for well over 12 hours.
She added: “There was one consistent feature which was the look of fear in patients’ eyes as they watched the continual movement and activity going on loudly in very close proximity to them.
“These patients were mainly in gowns with no privacy, no dignity, no space and no confidentiality.”
‘Now normalised’
RCN Wales said nurses had reported that corridor care had become normalised in some hospital settings.
Ms Williams said staff were going home after shifts knowing they had not been able to give patients the care they deserved.
She said: “Nurses told me this is now normalised, happens every day and staff cannot care adequately for patients, which is causing harm and distress to patients, and significantly affecting nurses’ morale.”
In the Senedd on Tuesday (June 2), Health and Care Cabinet Secretary Mabon ap Gwynfor described corridor care as an unsafe practice and said tackling it was a priority.
RCN Wales said it welcomed that recognition but said the next step must be proper measurement and public reporting.
Ms Williams said: “Without consistent national and organisation-wide data, it is impossible to establish the true scale of the problem, identify trends, target resources effectively or measure progress over time.”
Call for national reviews
RCN Wales is also calling for the publication of two national reviews into healthcare capacity, alongside policy recommendations for action.
The union said understanding the relationship between capacity pressures and corridor care would be essential if the practice was to be eliminated.
Ms Williams added: “This is not about collecting statistics for their own sake. It is about establishing a baseline against which improvement can be measured and ensuring accountability for delivering safer care for patients.
“Nursing staff have been warning about the dangers of corridor care for years. Patients deserve care delivered in safe and appropriate clinical environments, and staff deserve the resources and capacity needed to provide it.
“The publication of data in England is an important step. Wales must now follow suit and ensure we have the evidence needed to eradicate corridor care for good.”
