Patients ‘would rather risk dying at home than go through torture’ of corridor care
A general view of staff on a NHS hospital wardNurses share harrowing accounts of a ‘broken system’
NURSES have shared harrowing accounts of a “broken system” of corridor care that “tortures” patients, with people left in chairs for days and one patient choking to death, unnoticed.
Publishing new findings on the practice today, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned that collapsing NHS care standards are pushing staff morale “past the point of no return.”
The report comes a year after a previous damning investigation by the union into corridor care.
RCN contacted thousands of nurses who contributed to last year’s report to assess whether corridor care was still being used and its impact.
Responses from 436 nurses showed the practice remains widespread.
Nurses described having to hold up white sheets to protect patient dignity while performing intimate procedures.
At one hospital, an elderly patient was forced to eat in a corridor beside someone who was vomiting.
A nurse working in the NHS in south-west England said patients felt “deeply embarrassed, objectified, judged, uncared for” and like “a burden on a broken system.”
They are often “wishing they had never bothered to come in and would rather have taken the risk of dying at home than go through the torture,” the nurse said.
“Because that’s what we subject them to, a type of torture.”
…
Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/patients-would-rather-risk-dying-home-go-through-torture-corridor-care
