Responding to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s report which warns emergency departments must put infection control at the ‘top of their agenda’, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Pat Cullen said:
“Emergency departments are crowded, undignified and dangerous. Nursing staff are doing everything possible to keep their patients safe but mounting pressures make everything a relentless battle.
“When beds are lining the corridors and patients are sitting on chairs and treated in cupboards, safety is compromised. Infection prevention and control should be paramount but high standards become harder to maintain in these circumstances and the staff of emergency departments, including nursing, feel set up to fail. The health and care system needs to be brought back from this perilous position.”
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