British nurses say patients are dying in hospital corridors

Patients are dying in the corridors of British hospitals. Pregnant women receive abortion treatment in semi-public places. Fleeing patients are cleaned near the vending machines.

These are just some of the shocking revelations in a report It was published on Thursday by the Royal College of Nursing, the British nursing association. The report described a crisis of overcrowding that nurses say has led to a collapse of care, privacy and dignity in the country’s National Health Service.

“Vulnerable people are being stripped of their dignity and nurses are being denied access to life-saving equipment,” said Nicola Ranger, secretary general and chief executive of the union. statement.

The report added that the country’s health workers had reached a “breaking point”.

460-page report featuring anonymous testimony from more than 5,400 nurses surveyed between December 18 and January 11, 2024 The latest liquid from British medical professionals. A spokesman said the union had granted its members anonymity to allow them to speak freely, prevent influence from employers and protect patient privacy.

Doctors and nurses have struggled to care for around 70 million people in the UK after years of challenges, including chronic underinvestment in the NHS under Conservative-led governments that took power from 2010 to 2024.

President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Dr. statement.

Dr. Boyle was one of several leading British physicians expresses solidarity with nurses. He called these statements “irritating”.

“It’s clear what the workers are getting,” he said. “People are in tears, frustrated, angry and even in some cases giving up their careers because they can’t face going to work every day because they can’t provide the level of care they want.”

The nurses’ report outlining the “corridor care” crisis comes just months after another blockbuster NHS report. in “critical” condition.

Patients regularly waited for hours According to a government-commissioned report published in September, doctors are struggling to work without adequate medical equipment or enough space in hospitals for treatment. It found that national satisfaction with the beleaguered health service was at an “all-time low”.

The consequences of a breakdown in care extend beyond hospital corridors. Many Britons see a working NHS, which provides free health care at the point of use to all Britons through a tax-funded model created after the Second World War, as a key commitment of their government.

The coronavirus pandemic rekindled the controversy about its profound failures and deepened these difficulties. The dire state of the NHS was a major factor in this situation Labor Partyit sounds victory in last year’s national election: Many Britons blame savings measures earmarked for health service failures by previous Conservative governments.

Labor has promised reforms, but the nurses’ union pushed for a more robust approach on Thursday. Union leader Professor Ranger called for “bold government action on an NHS that has been neglected for too long” and warned ministers “not to shirk responsibility”.

More than 90 percent of respondents to the Union’s survey said that patient care is compromised when delivered in inappropriate conditions.

The report described how patients had to wait for CPR as nurses struggled to maneuver through a narrow corridor to arrive in time. Often, patients endured unhygienic conditions, nurses said. Some were sprayed with each other’s vomit. Involuntary patients are cleaned in corridors without privacy.

The damage is especially obvious to dead people. According to the report, patients had to face their deaths in cramped and crowded places with no privacy. The nurse said that the body was found in the corridors a few hours after the death.

The report comes amid growing concerns about staffing in the NHS, which is struggling to recruit and retain young talent.

Many nurses who responded to the union’s survey, including one who explained that she cares for about 40 patients each day in hallways and overflow areas, said the inability to provide decent care in appropriate settings is hurting staff morale. Young doctors they went on vacation to protest low wages and long hours.

Nurses they also went on vacation in recent years demand higher wages, better working conditions and help address critical staffing shortages. In the report, many nurses said they were burnt out and leaving the NHS