The NHS is treating nearly 3,000 sick patients a day in corridors, cupboards and cafes because emergency departments are overwhelmed, new figures have revealed.
Data published for the first time has laid bare the scale of the crisis, with experts warning that “corridor care” has become “normalised” within the health service, which means patients are being treated without “privacy or dignity”.
In May, more than 2,200 patients per day received care in the corridor of an A&E department because of a lack of beds, the data shows, while another 669 patients were treated in or near wards.
Any patient who spends 45 minutes or more being treated in areas deemed clinically inappropriate – such as corridors or waiting rooms – is considered to have experienced corridor care, according to the NHS. Some patients have been treated in car parks.
The corridor care crisis has been well documented, with reports of patients dying while waiting to be admitted. Diabetic patients have been left for hours without food, while other patients have said they were left on broken beds in pitch-black corridors for 24 hours with no privacy, according to a review of patient care in emergency departments in December, carried out by the group Healthwatch England.
Speaking after the figures were released, health secretary James Murray said: “Corridor care is unacceptable, undignified and has no place in our NHS.”
He said the new data aims to “shine a spotlight” on where the problems are greatest, and stressed that the “vast majority” of corridor care takes place in a small number of organisations.
But one expert warned that corridor care had been “normalised”. Siva Anandaciva, director of policy at The King’s Fund, said patients are routinely being treated “without privacy or dignity”.
“Corridor care is one of the most visible signs of how patient safety and experience are being compromised in the NHS,” he said. “It is distressing for staff when they cannot deliver the care they want for their patients, and it is equally unacceptable when patients are left feeling forgotten and vulnerable at the time they most need to feel safe and cared for.”
The NHS analysis found a huge difference in the prevalence of corridor care across different trusts. A total of 20 trusts accounted for more than half of the cases of corridor care in emergency departments.
It came as A&E departments experienced their busiest month on record in May, with 2,457,398 attendances – up 25,000 on the previous record, set in March this year.
The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England, from a decision to admit to actually being admitted, stood at 50,212 in May, up from 47,750 in April. The figure reached a record 71,517 in January.
The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission stood at 128,590 last month, up from 122,616 in April.
Some 75.7 per cent of patients in England were seen within four hours in A&E departments in May, down from 76.9 per cent in April.
The government and NHS England had set a target of March this year for 78 per cent of patients attending A&E to be admitted, discharged or transferred within four hours.
Meanwhile, the waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has risen for the first time in six months.
An estimated 7.22 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of April, relating to 6.11 million patients, NHS figures show. This is up from 7.11 million treatments and 6.02 million patients at the end of March.
The increase means the size of the list has returned to where it stood in February, reversing the fall that took place in March.
“A&E staff bore the brunt of the heatwave in May, as the hot weather took its toll on the public,” explained Professor Francesca Swords, national medical director for the NHS.
“In the face of record demand during the recent heatwave, NHS staff rose to the challenge, ensuring that as many patients as possible were seen and treated in good time,” she said.
She added that corridor care is “totally unacceptable” and “should have no place in the NHS”.
Read MoreHow does your hospital rank in NHS corridor care crisis?
‘Beyond unacceptable’ that nurse was chased into Ulster Hospital by masked men
£20m AI tech ‘will speed up cancer diagnosis for millions’ of UK patients
First daily pill for weight loss approved by medicines regulator
The pain of DRC’s past echoes into this new Ebola outbreak
Governments are pulling apart a system to fight Aids that took decades to build
