Nurses and doctors warn of safety risks as Welsh Parliament prepares to debate corridor care

Representatives from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the British Medical Association (BMA) gathered at the Senedd on Wednesday to highlight growing concerns about corridor care ahead of a parliamentary debate on hospital overcrowding.

The debate follows a joint petition by both unions calling on the Welsh Government to end corridor care by measuring its prevalence and taking steps to prevent hospital overcrowding, including increased investment in community services.

The petition attracted more than 10,000 signatures from across Wales.

The unions said frontline staff continue to report serious risks to patients treated in unsuitable spaces, including reduced dignity, poorer clinical outcomes and increased mortality.

A recent report from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine found more than 900 excess deaths in Wales last year associated with long A&E waits.

Dr Manish Adke, chair of the BMA’s Welsh Consultants Committee, said: “As health professionals it is extremely distressing to see patients in unsafe, inappropriate spaces whilst they are at their most vulnerable.

“What’s worse is that this practice is becoming systematically normalised and that is completely unacceptable. It is not what we trained for, it’s not the care we want to give and it’s putting patients at risk of serious harm.

“Without an allocated bed space we cannot stabilise patients with fluids, antibiotics or invasive lines. This adds serious risk to patients and leads to poorer outcomes and adds a greater risk of death. The Welsh Government must act now because lives depend on it.”

Helen Whyley, Executive Director of RCN Wales, said: “People from around Wales and beyond have united with us and the BMA to call for an end to Corridor Care. We’re asking Welsh government to listen to the strength of feeling and act now.

“Hardworking nurses and health care professionals are doing their best to care for seriously ill patients in unacceptable, dangerous and almost Dickensian-like conditions, adding stress to both the carer-giver and the patients and seriously putting lives at risk.

“We’re calling for the Welsh government to work with us and the BMA on resolutions for improved care pathways and conditions for both patients and health care professionals. This includes investment in front-line community care such as increasing the number of district nurses.

“Corridor Care is undignified, unsafe and unacceptable – the Welsh government must act to end this practice now.”