In a first official investigation, the Health Services Safety Investigations Body plans to investigate the impact of corridor care and report to parliament by the year end.
An investigation into corridor care in England has been announced, following sustained campaigning on the issue by the Royal College of Nursing.
It is an issue that Healthcare Today has long reported on.
The Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) – which carries out independent patient safety investigations in England’s NHS and independent health care settings – will investigate “temporary care environments”. This is the first time official investigators will examine the impact of corridor care. HSSIB will provide a report directly to Westminster at the end of the year.
The HSSIB plans to speak to staff, patients and families, to understand how, where and when temporary care environments are being used; the needs of patients using temporary care environments, including those from vulnerable patient groups, and the associated patient safety issues; and the impact of temporary care environments on patients and staff and how organisations are managing the associated patient safety issues.
“No patient should languish in a corridor, a chair or be forced to endure intimate examinations in public areas. This investigation must shed more light on the scale and impact of these shocking conditions and mark the beginning of the end for this unacceptable practice,” said RCN general secretary and chief executive Nicola Ranger.
Carefully managed
For meaningful progress to be made to eradicate corridor care, demand within the acute sector must be carefully managed and reduced, the RCN said.
This will require patient capacity to be increased in the right places; challenges addressed in primary and social care; and the ambition to move care into the community – a key aspect of the NHS’s 10 Year Health Plan – must be prioritised and properly funded. Alongside this, additional nursing resources in primary care and social care can help keep people healthier for longer, reducing the likelihood of complications leading to avoidable admissions.
“With the support of health leaders and ministers, this investigation could be a significant moment for patient safety. Alongside new investment to bolster the nursing workforce, there is hope that we can transform patient care,” Ranger said.
As Healthcare Today reported in August, corridor care has been blamed as a factor in the rise in violence against nurses.
Freedom of Information requests to 89 trusts in England found that incidences of physical violence against staff have almost doubled from 2,093 in 2019 to 4,054 last year.
Earlier this year, the Royal College of Nursing and the British Medical Association in Wales joined forces to call for an end to the practice, which threatens patient safety altogether in Welsh hospitals.
