Wes Streeting has promised to end “corridor care” by 2029.
The health secretary rightly pointed out that it is not acceptable for patients to be treated on trolleys in hospital corridors - a practice that has become, experts say, “normalised” as the NHS battles to treat more patients in tougher conditions and with fewer staff.
The Independent has reported how patients are being treated in corridors, as well as hospital coffee shops and in cupboards. Last month, top doctors also told this publication about the rising issue of patients being cared for in A&E waiting room chairs, known as “chair care” - with patients admitted through A&E then sent back out to receive treatment in the waiting room.
The situation has become so bad that the Royal College of Nursing described corridor care as a “crisis” - warning that it is putting patients’ safety at risk.
But experts have said that the health secretary’s welcome ambition to end “corridor care” is all-but impossible if the government wants the NHS to make strides on hitting its raft of other targets, including bringing down waiting lists.
Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst for health think tank The King’s Fund, toldThe Independent that the likelihood Mr Streeting would achieve his ambition to end corridor care is “very low.”
“I laud the ambition,” he told The Independent. “I remember talking to some clinicians and operational managers who couldn’t believe how normalised things were becoming. We put call bells in our corridors, we put curtains in our corridors... I never thought it would come to this.”
On abolishing the practice of corridor care, he said: “Even on its own terms, it would be one of the biggest performance achievements the NHS would ever achieve in three years.
“Eliminating corridor care - the thought you could do that, while improving every other area of care covered by a national target and delivering a massive reform plan - just means that you’ve given the NHS too many hard-to-achieve or undeliverable tasks at the same time.”
He added: “Things have really deteriorated to a level I have never seen before in my career. So many things have to work to end corridor care, all of which aren’t going to be done by next winter, and I’m unfortunately pessimistic they will be done by the next election.”
A&E data published by NHS England shows 164,880 patients waited for more than 12 hours after arriving in A&E departments in October. Figures show waits of this kind have not significantly reduced since Labour came into government.
According to figures published by The Health Service Journal, almost one million patients were treated in corridors or temporary spaces in hospitals over the last year.
It comes as resident doctors in England prepare to stage a walkout in the run-up to Christmas and as NHS England chief executive Jim Mackey warns of a soaring number of flu patients in hospital beds, amid a worsening “tidal wave” of the illness.
Top emergency care doctor Dr Ian Higginson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, also told The Independent that the government is too focused on “quick wins” within emergency care to address the issue.
He said: “The bottom line is there isn't a quick or an easy way out of it - and that's one of the issues, is that health service leaders and politicians have been looking for quick and easy ways out. Hence, they've been looking in the wrong places and ignoring the proper strategic solutions that are required.”
The A&E doctor said the ways to tackle corridor care include addressing the fact that there aren’t enough beds, which requires more hospital staff and space, and another key factor is reducing the number of patients stuck in hospital beds who cannot leave.
Dr Higginson said “everything is missing” in terms of government’s plans for A&E.
He added: “The government has tended to shy away from its policy focus on A&E, mostly what they talk about is waiting lists for elective care… the best ways that we have to fix elective waiting lists is to sort out a hospital capacity as well.
“Within urgent and emergency care, they've been looking for the quick, easy wins but corridor care is unquestionably getting worse.”
The Department for Health and Social Care was approached for comment.
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