Why corridor care brings great shame on the healthcare system

One of the great shames that hangs over the nation’s healthcare system is the practice of corridor care. The very idea of the term entering the healthcare lexicon should shame anyone who cares about the wellbeing and dignity of the most vulnerable in society.

In fact, a measure of society is how it treats the most vulnerable amongst it. And corridor care is indicative of serious failings in the healthcare system.

Compounding these serious failings is the new analysis that shows elderly people are more likely to face long waits in A&E than younger patients, with more than a fifth waiting over 12 hours. Elderly and frail patients aged 81 and over are often worst affected by corridor care.

This is a worrying trend that needs to be addressed urgently. Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting had begun work on ending the practice of corridor care. But there is clearly a lot more that needs to be done. Corridor care denies vulnerable patients privacy and as well as creating problems for them accessing the toilet and getting food and water.

It also has a negative impact on the hardworking frontline staff. The doctors, clinicians, nurses, ambulance workers and porters are all doing their best in the most testing of circumstances.

In contrast to profligate managers within the NHS, these are some of the most compassionate and caring people anyone could ever meet.

Corridor care won’t come to an end by just resourcing the front end of the NHS. Too many patients are not moving swiftly through the hospital system and once again it comes to the lack of social care provision.