The Welsh Government has said the treatment of patients in chairs for 24 hours does not “meet the threshold” to be classed as an NHS ‘never event’, as unions launch a fresh campaign to put an end to corridor care in the devolved nation.
Wales branches of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and British Medical Association (BMA) started a petition calling on the Welsh Government to take “urgent action” over corridor care.
“Corridor care is unsafe, undignified, and unacceptable”
Helen Whyley
The petition, posted on the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) website, puts forward four key demands.
The first is for better recording and reporting on corridor care in Wales, firstly by classifying the treatment of a patient in a chair for more than 24 hours – which is one form of corridor care – as a ‘never event’.
‘Never events’ are defined by the Welsh Government as “preventable serious incidents that could or actually cause harm to patients or their safety”.
Examples include surgery being performed on the wrong patient, or the wrong limb of the right patient, and particularly severe medicine errors.
Corridor care
It refers to the treatment of patients in non-clinical settings. For example, a patient receiving care from a nurse in a waiting room, a chair outside of a hospital bedroom, or on a stretcher in the hallway of a hospital.
The RCN, and other unions and healthcare organisations, have been raising the alarm about corridor care for several years on the grounds that it is unsafe and inappropriate for patients, and a sign that A&E departments cannot meet demand.
Secondly, the petition asked the Welsh Government to pause cuts to NHS beds, to review capacity and to deliver a “clear” and “costed” workforce plan for hospitals.
Thirdly, it demanded investment in community care including an increase in district nurse numbers to above 2010 levels and improvements to general practice funding.
Finally, the unions called on the Welsh Government to “prioritise” prevention, early intervention and diagnosis to reduce “avoidable crises”.
The petition was launched today (29 April). However, the Welsh Government has already indicated it would likely not be carrying forward the first demand in full.
A spokesperson for the devolved administration told Nursing Times that care for patients in chairs for more than 24 hours “does not meet the criteria” to be classified as a ‘never event’, “given the complex nature of causes”.
The spokesperson said that the government does not endorse routine care in non-clinical environments, but that “there are occasions when the NHS faces exceptional pressures during high demand periods”.
RCN Wales executive director Helen Whyley said the situation had gone “beyond breaking point”.
“I have travelled across Wales and witnessed people in pain, confused and frightened, with no privacy, no dignity, and no proper care environment,” she said, following the launch of the petition.
“Treating patients in corridors and other inappropriate areas is not nursing – it is crisis management in a system that is failing.
“Corridor care is unsafe, undignified, and unacceptable. The Welsh Government must act now-working with health unions and NHS leaders-to implement urgent and meaningful changes.”
Stephen Kelly, BMA Welsh Consultants Committee chair, added: “This is dangerous and is putting patients’ lives at risk, we urge the Welsh Government to work with us to put a stop to this practice.
“We’re extremely concerned that the ‘normalising’ of seeing patients in completely inappropriate spaces will mean that patients come to significant harm which is hugely distressing for patients but also NHS staff.
“This affects everyone in Wales, and we urge people to sign the petition and help us to put an end to corridor care.”
According to the unions, the petition was prompted by an “overwhelming” number of testimonies from doctors and nurses about the “dire consequences” of corridor care.
It comes shortly after the publication of RCN’s report into the scale and impact of corridor care across the UK.
As well as this, independent health and social care scrutiny body Llais, earlier this year, published a damning review into Wales’ overstretched urgent and emergency care departments.
The full statement from the Welsh Government, in response to the petition, read: “We do not endorse routine care in non-clinical environments where patient privacy or dignity is compromised.
“However, there are occasions when the NHS faces exceptional pressures during high demand periods.
“Never events are recorded in the NHS as wholly preventable medical errors with the potential to cause serious harm, therefore the call to classify care for patients in chairs for more than 24 hours as a ‘never event’ does not meet the criteria, given the complex nature of causes.
“We’ve provided £200m additional funding this year to improve home care and hospital discharge timelines to address these challenges, which are not unique to Wales.”
