Treatment in corridors becoming the norm - nurses

Hospital patients being treated in corridors is "becoming the norm" and some are dying as a result, the head of a nursing union has said.

Helen Whyley of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in Wales, was talking after the union published a report into the issue across the UK.

One Welsh nurse told the report patients were being "stripped of their dignity every day".

The Welsh government said it did not endorse the treatment of patients in non-clinical areas and was working with health leaders to address the challenges.

The RCN report is based on the responses of 5,408 nurses in the UK from 18 December to 11 January and includes anonymous testimonies from staff in Wales.

One nurse said: "There is no privacy for patients, no access to essential equipment like oxygen or resuscitation tools and no call bells to ensure patient safety."

Ms Whyley said the union had raised the issue before and action was needed to address it.

"There is a crisis happening in our hospitals across Wales, because people are being treated in unsafe, undignified and unacceptable environments," she said.

"We're not talking about one patient, we're talking about whole cohorts of patients sitting in chairs for hours on end or being moved into wards in front of fire escapes, or having to stay on a trolley in a corridor for far too long.

"We believe that this care is of such a standard that it is allowing a situation where it is more likely that patients will die as a result of it."

The Welsh government said: "We do not endorse the routine care of treatment of individuals in non-clinical or unsuitable environments, nor any situations where the quality of care, privacy, or dignity of patients is compromised."

It added there were occasions where the NHS faced "exceptional pressures", which highlighted the importance of accessing the right care in the right place so the most critically ill patients could be cared for.