Patients ‘harmed’ as UK hospital standards ‘collapse’: report

UK sufferers are “coming to hurt” as nurses say they’re having to deal with individuals in corridors and unsuitable locations due to a “collapse in care requirements”, a report mentioned Thursday.

Within the newest indictment of Britain’s beleaguered state-funded Nationwide Well being Service, 9 in 10 NHS nurses surveyed by the nation’s nurses union mentioned “affected person security is being compromised”.

Practically seven in 10 (66.8 %) mentioned they have been delivering care in “overcrowded or unsuitable locations” on a “each day foundation”, together with in corridors, transformed cabinets, automotive parks and even bereavement rooms.

“The experiences of over 5,000 nursing workers throughout the UK spotlight a devastating collapse in care requirements, with sufferers routinely coming to hurt,” mentioned the Royal Faculty of Nursing (RCN).

The report condemns the “normalization” of so-called “hall care”, with nurses unable to entry life-saving tools in cramped areas and sufferers even dying in corridors.

One nurse in east England mentioned hall care of their hospital belief was “not an exception, it is the rule”.

Final month, some 54,000 sufferers in emergency departments in England needed to wait over 12 hours till a hospital mattress was out there, up 23 % from December 2023.

‘Dying’

Among the many RCN report testimonies are accounts of nurses treating as much as 40 sufferers ready in a hall, in addition to studies of pregnant ladies miscarrying in corridors.

Some reported overcrowded corridors impeding them from giving life-saving resuscitation (CPR). One nurse recalled a affected person dying after a cardiac arrest “by the male rest room”.

One other alleged having to deal with cardiac arrests “with no crash bell, crash trolley, oxygen, defibrillator… straddling a affected person doing CPR whereas everybody watches on”.

“This devastating testimony from frontline nursing workers exhibits sufferers are coming to hurt every single day”, mentioned RCN Normal Secretary Nicola Ranger.

“Susceptible individuals are being stripped of their dignity and nursing workers are being denied entry to important lifesaving tools. We will now categorically say sufferers are dying on this state of affairs,” Ranger added.

In June 2024, the RCN declared a “nationwide emergency” over hospital overcrowding and care being delivered in unsuitable locations.

Well being Basis charity’s assistant director of coverage Tim Gardner mentioned report delays in emergency care “have been a rarity earlier than the pandemic, however at the moment are the worst we’ve seen since data started in 2011”.

There are some 7.5 million individuals on the NHS ready listing, with greater than three million having confronted delays longer than 18 weeks for remedy.

Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was elected in July on a ticket which included fixing the NHS, rolled out a plan in the beginning of the yr which included increasing neighborhood well being facilities to scale back stress on hospitals.

Well being Secretary Wes Streeting on Wednesday mentioned hall care was “unsafe” and “undignified” however it might “take time to undo the harm” to the NHS.

© 2025 AFP