The number of patients being treated in hospital corridors will be officially monitored nationally for the first time in Northern Ireland, it has been announced.
Northern Ireland’s health minister, Mike Nesbitt, revealed last week that country-wide monitoring would begin of the number of people being treated in temporary escalation beds across the Health and Social Care (HSC) service.
“It is only through monitoring what is happening on the ground that we will be in a position to take meaningful action”
Rita Devlin
A spokesperson for the Department of Health in Northern Ireland confirmed to Nursing Times that the rollout of a new digital records system across HSC trusts, Encompass, would allow “consistent monitoring of bed availability and the utilisation of escalation beds on hospital wards”.
They added: “We expect that regional monitoring of all bed data, including escalation beds, will commence at the beginning of June.”
A temporary escalation bed is one added to an inpatient ward, in addition to funded or commissioned beds, which is opened on a short-term basis to cope with demand or increased pressures.
Various locations within inpatient wards, including corridors, may be used for these beds.
HSC trusts already collate information on escalation beds in hospitals, which is currently used for internal operational management purposes.
The change in June will ensure that this data is collected consistently across regions and can be analysed at a national level by ministers.
It follows a survey published by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in January, which revealed that frontline nurses were being forced to give care in corridors, cupboards and car parks on a daily basis.
The college’s chief described the normalisation of corridor care as the “worst it’s ever been” in the history of the NHS.
Responding to the announcement, RCN Northern Ireland executive director Professor Rita Devlin said she was “extremely pleased” that the health minister had “listened to our concerns and acted upon them”.
She said: “It is only through monitoring what is happening on the ground that we will be in a position to take meaningful action.
“Consistently nurses have been reporting that they are unable to care for people properly in these conditions and it is crucial that this practice does not become normalised and accepted.”
Professor Devlin argued that recording and monitoring the data was an “important step in the right direction” but must be coupled with “decisive action” to tackle the issue.
She added: “As one of the first parts of the UK to take this decision, we hope that others will follow our lead.
“We look forward to working closely with the Department of Health to advocate on behalf of nursing staff working on the front line and develop solutions to the challenges we are currently facing.”
Nursing Times asked the other UK governments what their current position was on capturing data on corridor care in hospitals.
The Welsh Government confirmed to Nursing Times that it had been collecting operational data since May 2023 on patients being treated in unsuitable environments.
It said this data was being gathered to better understand the issue of corridor care in Wales.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We do not endorse the routine care or treatment of individuals in non-clinical or unsuitable environments, nor any situations where the quality of care, privacy, or dignity of patients is compromised.
“However, there are occasions when the NHS faces exceptional pressures, such as during periods of increased demand or public health emergencies.”
The spokesperson added that the government had provided more than £200m in additional funding to support health and care services to “safely manage more people at home and improve timeliness of discharge from hospital”.
It comes as a petition, led by Welsh branches of the RCN and British Medical Association, has this week called for better recording and reporting on corridor care in the country.
Meanwhile, a UK Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told Nursing Times that NHS trusts in England would also be asked to publish corridor care data later this year.
It comes as a coalition of healthcare organisations had previously urged ministers and NHS England to collect and publish data on the level of corridor care taking place across NHS trusts.
The government spokesperson said: “It is unacceptable that corridor care has become a feature of our NHS for patients, despite the best efforts of staff.
“We have acted fast to ease pressure on the NHS, including ending the resident doctor strikes so staff were on the frontline not the picket line for the first winter in three years, and through our Plan for Change, we are investing in the health service to free up beds and get patients home quicker.
“The NHS intends to publish corridor care data later this year.”
In Scotland, there are currently no plans to collect national data on corridor care.
A Scottish Government spokesperson told Nursing Times: “While there are no current plans to publish data relating to corridor care, the Scottish Government is in discussions with Public Health Scotland about whether it might be possible to capture accurate data about this within existing unscheduled care data in the future.”
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