Responding to Channel 4’s Dispatches undercover A&E footage, RCN Acting General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said:
“The footage in Dispatches should shock us all, but sadly it has become commonplace across NHS hospitals. Patients can wait for days in corridors and chairs – this is tantamount to torture and a national emergency for patient safety.
“Nursing staff have been left with an impossible job and feel demoralised. Too little capacity in community services pushes patients to the doors of emergency departments. When they get there, hospitals are jam-packed, and chronic staff shortages mean patients don’t get the care they deserve. It is unsafe, undignified, and unacceptable.
“Nursing staff have called for chair care lasting longer than 24 hours to become an NHS ‘never event’, in the same way as having the wrong limb operated on. Mandatory national reporting must also be introduced to urgently reveal the extent of patients being cared for in inappropriate places.
“Long delays in A&E are symptoms of a system in crisis. The next government will be elected in a matter of days and serious and significant investment across health and care needs to be an urgent priority.”
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