Although it says that it is not acceptable, the Care Quality Commission has published updated guidance on care within non-designated clinical spaces.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has updated its guidance for corridor care, the blight on emergency departments that is getting worse rather than getting better.
At the end of February, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) called on the government to publish promised data on corridor care, as new NHS England performance figures show sustained pressure on urgent and emergency care services in England.
Across the NHS, patients are receiving corridor care in spaces that were not designed, staffed or equipped for patient care, such as waiting rooms, corridors, and other temporary care environments. “This reflects the current lack of capacity to manage rising demand,” the CQC said.
The commission makes clear that delivering care in such spaces should “not be regarded as acceptable and must not become normalised”. In situations where physical capacity is unable to meet the demand for clinical space, hospital staff need to make risk-based decisions to decide the safest possible approach, it continued.
Heightened pressure
The updated guidance will help CQC inspectors collect the right evidence to assess if hospitals have carried out a robust assessment of the safest place to care for patients, taken all appropriate steps to reduce safety risks and avoid preventable harm, and created a plan to stop the use of any non-designated clinical space from the time of its implementation.
It also expects hospitals to put plans in place to prevent the use of corridor care or other non-clinical spaces from becoming routine and to recognise that the use of corridor care is part of an urgent system response to patient demand, which requires system-wide solutions.
“People should be receiving safe and effective hospital care in an environment that allows for their privacy and dignity to be protected – that’s what patients deserve and what staff want to be able to deliver every time,” said Toli Onon, CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals.
“We recognise that in times of heightened pressure, Trusts will need to make difficult risk-based decisions to determine the safest place for patients to be, but corridor care must not become normalised. Where a hospital does use a corridor or other temporary space, we will look for assurance they are doing everything possible to mitigate risk and ensure patients are protected from harm,” she continued.
