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

UK patients are “coming to harm” as nurses say they are having to treat people in corridors and unsuitable places because of a “collapse in care standards”, a report said Thursday.

In the latest indictment of Britain’s beleaguered state-funded National Health Service, nine in 10 NHS nurses surveyed by the country’s nurses union said “patient safety is being compromised”.

Nearly seven in 10 (66.8 percent) said they were delivering care in “overcrowded or unsuitable places” on a “daily basis”, including in corridors, converted cupboards, car parks and even bereavement rooms.

“The experiences of over 5,000 nursing staff across the UK highlight a devastating collapse in care standards, with patients routinely coming to harm,” said the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

The report condemns the “normalization” of so-called “corridor care”, with nurses unable to access life-saving equipment in cramped spaces and patients even dying in corridors.

One nurse in east England said corridor care in their hospital trust was “not an exception, it’s the rule”.

Last month, some 54,000 patients in emergency departments in England had to wait over 12 hours until a hospital bed was available, up 23 percent from December 2023.

‘Dying’

Among the RCN report testimonies are accounts of nurses treating up to 40 patients waiting in a corridor, as well as reports of pregnant women miscarrying in corridors.

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

Another alleged having to treat cardiac arrests “with no crash bell, crash trolley, oxygen, defibrillator… straddling a patient doing CPR while everyone watches on”.

“This devastating testimony from frontline nursing staff shows patients are coming to harm every day”, said RCN General Secretary Nicola Ranger.

“Vulnerable people are being stripped of their dignity and nursing staff are being denied access to vital lifesaving equipment. We can now categorically say patients are dying in this situation,” Ranger added.

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

Health Foundation charity’s assistant director of policy Tim Gardner said record delays in emergency care “were a rarity before the pandemic, but are now the worst we have seen since records began in 2011”.

There are some 7.5 million people on the NHS waiting list, with more than three million having faced delays longer than 18 weeks for treatment.

Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was elected in July on a ticket which included fixing the NHS, rolled out a plan at the start of the year which included expanding community health centers to reduce pressure on hospitals.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting on Wednesday said corridor care was “unsafe” and “undignified” but it would “take time to undo the damage” to the NHS.

© 2025 AFP