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Hospital staff 'depressed and demoralised'

PA Media Nurses and a doctor looking at computers and read notes on a hospital ward. The doctor has his hand over his face PA Media
The Royal College of Nursing says conditions in the region's hospitals are harder than they were during the pandemic

A senior member of a nursing union has claimed hospital staff across the east were "depressed and demoralised" with many considering leaving the profession.

Melanie McAteer from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said winter pressures were making conditions harder than during the pandemic.

The union has just published a report where nurses in the region described how they were regularly treating patients in corridors with little dignity or privacy.

The health secretary said some patients' experiences this winter were "unacceptable" but one MP from the east, who is a practicing doctor, said he believed things would start to get better within the next year.

PA Media A large green and white wheelchair being moved at speed down a hospital corridor by a member of staff while two others stand nearby looking at notes. There is a black computer keyboard in the foreground. PA Media
The RCN says many nurses are so busy they cannot provide proper levels of care

More than 150 nurses across the east of England contributed to the RCN's report.

It asked its members at the end of December to describe the last time they had to deliver care in an inappropriate setting.

"We have patients in corridors 24 hours a day, seven days a week", wrote one.

"There is no privacy. We've had patients miss meal times. It makes me feel ashamed."

"There were no alarms, no oxygen or obs (observation) machines," wrote another.

"There was no heating and the corridor was next to the entrance. It was freezing cold and the patients and next of kin were complaining constantly."

One nurse told how patients in corridors had to discuss their symptoms within earshot of other people and others told how patients would be treated in full view of the public.

'Inadequate'

A nurse in an elderly care unit wrote: "We are frequently made to sit very elderly frail people out in the corridor at 7am before they are fed or washed."

Another said one shift "made me feel inadequate".

"Care is bad, patients (are) upset. Relatives (are) upset," they added.

Ms McAteer, the RCN's eastern senior regional officer, told the Politics East programme "nurses feel depressed and demoralised".

"They feel they cannot give the care they'd like to give. That's the reason they came into nursing."

She said some were thinking of leaving the profession and appealed to the government to urgently reform social care and invest in the nursing workforce.

Health secretary Wes Streeting told MPs this week "the experience of patients this winter was unacceptable".

He blamed the last Government for many of the problems and said he was determined to turn things around but warned "it will take time to fix our broken NHS".

BBC/Vikki Irwin Suffolk MP Peter Prinsley wearing a tie and blue suit standing in the street. He has short dark curly hair and is next to a wooden post with a metal plaque on it. BBC/Vikki Irwin
Suffolk MP Dr Peter Prinsley admits there is a lot to do but believes things will start to improve for the NHS this year

Peter Prinsley, the Labour MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, is also a practising consultant at the James Paget Hospital in Norfolk.

He told Politics East his operating list was cancelled last week because of a shortage of beds

"The capacity of the whole health service is presently inadequate and we have a big job to do to try to fix things," he said.

He later said he was optimistic the situation would improve in 2025.

"I think we will begin to see certain waiting lists start to fall in the course of this year because the government is very determined to do this and it also has a lot of innovative ideas about how to do this."

He hoped the growth of specialist surgical centres - there are already six in the region- would reduce pressure on hospitals.

"I think the government will also get a grip on some aspects of the dental crisis this year and I'm also very optimistic about some of the reforms it's bringing in to encourage more people into general practice," he added.

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