In horrifying testimony to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) study, one nurse in the South East of England said a patient had lain dead in a corridor ‘for hours’.
Another nurse, in Yorkshire and the Humber, said departments were becoming ‘overwhelmed’ on a daily basis, adding: ‘At its worst, (we are) asking someone to go round and make sure people are still alive.’
Patients dying in chairs and trolleys in corridors was now a familiar occurrence, according to one nurse in the South East.
The nurse added: ‘All the fundamentals of care have broken down – we are no better than a developing world casualty.’
A nurse in London said: ‘It’s awful – it feels like we’re living in a Third World country or worse. I dread going into work and wish I’d picked an alternative career.’
Another nurse in the South said: ‘I really felt bad for the patients – most of whom were elderly and unable to express their feelings about being cared for in very inhumane and Third World conditions.’
A nurse in Scotland said: ‘I worked throughout Covid-19 and… this lack of care in the broken system is worse. People are dying as a result of ambulances being held at hospitals and calls are eventually being responded to almost two days after 999 has been called. This has to end, now!’
A cancer patient whose immunity was extremely low because of her treatment was left in a busy area close to a staff room and toilet in a hospital in the South West.
A nurse said: ‘She should have been in a side room. She was very upset and crying. We put screens around her but it was constantly busy. That poor lady eventually passed away.’
A nurse in London said: ‘The department is over-capacity on a daily basis, leaving patients being cared for in corridors, on chairs when they should be in beds, on ambulance trolleys, in relatives’ rooms, in viewing rooms, anywhere there is a space.’
A nurse in the East of England said: ‘Patients miscarrying and returning for treatment are being bedded in the busy waiting room which is used for emergency attenders and an outpatient department.’
A nurse in Scotland said the hospital had started placing beds ‘in the middle of bays in the wards in addition to corridor beds for more space’.
They added: ‘It is degrading, undignified, and at times unsafe for patients who are already angry due to the long waits, sometimes waiting in the emergency department for over 35 hours… just to be put in the corridor. The system is broken.’
For patients who are fortunate enough to find a cubicle, corridor care also presents challenges.
One nurse told of the chaos of patients having cardiac arrests in the corridor, adding: ‘Having to roll a trolley through a corridor and the whole department to re-sus straddling a patient doing CPR while everyone watches on. It just feels so undignified.’
In the South East, patients experienced cardiac arrests in the hallway or had their cubicles obstructed by people on trolleys in front of them, which caused life-saving CPR to be delayed.
A nurse at a hospital in the area said: ‘Despite these events, we still are obliged to deliver care in the corridor.’
What more can we anticipate when there is no infrastructure being constructed and a positive net migration of almost one million people each year? We will eventually level off until we all live like the third-world nations from which migrants have migrated.
Britain’s population has grown due to migration during the past 20 years and more, with many newcomers having severe health problems.
Due to a dearth of candidates, the NHS has been forced to close hospital beds and has unfilled professional medical positions. This is supported by a government cap on the number of physicians who can receive training each year and the number of physicians who can transition from general practice to speciality.
Too much demand, too little supply, and an inept government to do anything sensible about the situation. The NHS is failing and subsequent UK governments are watching it happen.
No doubt Starmer will be creaming his pants as he condemns the Tories, and in some instances he is right, but not all!
And when our money is desperately needed here, why do we continue to send it overseas? We cannot afford it, thus our government should immediately halt all aid to other countries.
Labour will not stop migrants from coming to the UK because they know that by giving them a vote, they will swing the next General Election and we Brits don’t matter to them anymore.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 