‘Hours on trolleys' for the sickest NHS patients

New research, carried out by the BBC, has found that many of the most seriously ill patients are waiting for hours on trolleys and in corridors as the NHS struggles to find them beds.

The research, based on analysis of NHS England data, revealed that nearly a quarter of patients admitted on to wards  in England during December and January faced delays of more than four hours before a bed could be found. This has a knock-on effect, meaning patients brought in by ambulance end up facing long waits too.

It showed 199,000 patients had four-hour trolley waits after being seen in A&E before a bed could be found, more than two times higher than the numbers seen four years ago. A further 130,000 patients brought in by ambulances were left waiting at least 30 minutes before they could be handed over to hospital staff - one in seven of all those brought in over the two-month period.

The Royal College of Nursing said its members were being forced to provide vital treatment, such as giving oxygen and putting patients on drips, in corridors and side rooms, in a move it described as ‘unacceptable and undignified’, putting patients at risk.

The crowded nature of hospitals could also be a problem when it comes to the risks posed by coronavirus, with experts warning that there was ‘little in the tank’ to cope with the virus, suggesting that an outbreak could lead to a pandemic in the UK - something that World Health Organisation has warned of. All hospitals have been asked to set up isolation pods in case patients with the virus go to hospital.

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, commented: “The NHS has been pushed to the brink with thousands of patients – often elderly and vulnerable – left languishing on trolleys in corridors for hours upon hours. Years of Tory bed cuts, underfunding and understaffing has taken its toll and patients are paying the price.”