Hospital patients being treated in corridors

No, Oreo
It was NOT how I had thought of being in a corridor.
Not what you would have chosen obviously.

...and just because it felt OK doesn't mean it's right.
Nobody thinks anyone should be treated - or even "observed" in a corridor.

Just saying.

I'm sorry some of you have had bad experiences of corridors. I just think some treatment is better than no treatment. Grateful doesn't seem popular but I am.

Last year I had an experience which still haunts me and I wasn’t the patient. DH had had major gastric surgery and about 3 weeks later he developed severe pain and other symptoms which were eventually diagnosed as an unidentified infection. He was taken to hospital by ambulance and spent the night on a trolley in a waiting room. The following morning he was moved to a corridor. It was busy, noisy and narrow. So narrow that I had to move away from him to allow trolleys or wheelchairs to pass by. Fortunately he had a catheter as the toilets weren’t nearby. The only way to get help from a nurse was to ambush them as they walked past. Whenever I left his side for any reason other patients would ask me for help. Could I get them food, drink or take them to a toilet. One elderly lady was struggling to make the hospital gown cover her properly and was getting embarrassed and distressed. I did manage to find a blanket to protect her dignity. Later in the day DH was discharged as they couldn’t find anything wrong. 2 days later he was admitted to a different hospital where he was kept in for a week and successfully treated. We had to take him there by car as it’s not the nearest to us. I’m glad that some people have been well looked after in a corridor but sadly this isn’t the case for everyone. DH is much better but still worries that he might have to go back there.

I have just noticed that, on BBC News report on the flu crisis from a hospital, few people, staff or patients, were wearing masks.

As others say, no privacy at all and what about bedpans? It’s shocking that the NHS has come to this.

NotSpaghetti

*Kate1949*, my mother-in-law also had great care in a corridor.
It wasn't a main thoroughfare but was definitely a corridor.

It was not how you think of it at all.

Yes it is…it’s a corridor!

It is illogical to be grateful for something you've paid for (ie out of your taxes). Part of why I get very fed-up - as I've taken so little back (no children/no married persons tax allowance...whilst that still existed/paying single person level of bills including Council Tax) = I darn well think it's fair to get what I've paid for from the NHS.

So I don't think I've ever understood the "be ever so 'umble and thankful" for what I've paid for anyway....

I work on a fair's fair "do my bit and expect to get my bit in return" basis.

Thought wouldnt occur to me of saying sorry to someone who bumped into me...I'm much more likely to stand there and look at them expectantly ..whilst waiting for their apology....and when (not if...!) it doesnt happen up goes my nose in the air and I probably shoot them a speaking look that could be summed up as "Hmmm....no-one taught them their manners obviously"....

It’s a British thing. Being ever so grateful.
Saying "sorry" to someone if they bump into us.

Allira

Well, as that was on the news last night and I thought the thread was related, then I thought it was pertinent.

I feel sorry for the staff , too, working in impossible circumstances.

Obviously no-one else thinks the same, that the more this happens, the more it becomes the norm and people accept this.

Not me. We are in this state because we have collectively allowed it to happen.
It’s a British thing. Being ever so grateful.

I’ve recently been in a similar experience to Kate1949. 5 weeks ago my mother 90 had a fall in her bathroom and was taken to A&E . She has heart problems, had a uti and was dehydrated. She was on a trolley by the nurses station for 10 hours but was taken into a cubicle with curtains for a detailed exam , Catheter inserted and put in a drip and IV antibiotics. The dept had a dedicated cubicle for exams .
We got there at midday , within several hours trolleys were building up in the corridors , mostly with elderly people being brought in by ambulance.
The staff were incredible , all very professional, kind and caring and work their butts off.
Being by the nurses station I was earwigging and heard that other local hospitals had closed their a&e , they couldn’t take anymore patients.
Paramedics were waiting for handover , so they could go back out . It was crazy and a real eye opener.
Mum got a bed is a single room at midnight and was admitted to the ward at 5pm the following day . She spent her 90th birthday in a&e , but the staff came in and sang happy birthday and gave her a cake .
The staff are doing their best, they’re understaffed and the buildings aren’t large enough to cope with the high level of patients. Plus they’re understaffed in the diagnostic departments, so staff are waiting ages for the results of scans , X-rays and blood tests .
Plus if admitted patients are having to wait for a bed on the wards .
Having experienced a&e I have huge gratitude and sympathy for the staff , including the ambulance staff .

Thank you Wyllow3. You're right, they are wonderful people and kindness itself.

Jaberwok

My granddaughter is a blue light ambulance driver, she is 22 years old and in between shifts studying to qualify as a Paramedic. She tells us of a service under great pressure, not least because of getting through impossible traffic situations, patients who are obstinate, even violent, (she has been attacked twice) time schedules that are impossible to keep to, endless hold ups delivering patients into hospital care, hold ups collecting patients to take to their own homes, endless paper work, and so it goes on. She loves the job!! and I'm amazed at how committed she is. I don't know what the answers are, but going on strike is definitely not the answer when vulnerable people are on the receiving end. The resident doctors should be ashamed at even contemplating such cruel action.

I watch the documentary 999 programmes that track the ambulance drivers. (I've forgotten the name of the specific ambulance one) They are wonderful people and yes do love it when they can make a difference - as well as sadnesses.

Bed blocking causes a lot of this. Some people cannot be discharged because they need help when they are sent home and that is not available.

NHS nursing staff in England are predicting a “devastating” corridor care winter for patients in hospitals in the coming months, as new analysis reveals 12hr+ trolley waits for sick patients are surging, increasing by almost 9000%, a 90-fold rise in just 6 years.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) today accuses the government of acting with “insufficient urgency” since last winter, with the failure to invest in boosting capacity, in both hospital and community settings, as well as staff numbers, laying the ground for the situation to worsen.

www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-events/Press-Releases/corridor-care-surging-in-hospitals-as-nursing-staff-warn-of-devastating-winter-ahead

theworriedwell

Lathyrus3

I’ve just read news reports of 100s of people going to hospital with flu.

They can’t all be seriously ill, can they? To the point where they need intensive help.

Are we expecting to be nursed in hospital when we are ill rather than at home, do you think?

They won't be getting admitted if they don't need to be.

That’s true.

Are they filling up the corridors and seats though, waiting ti be seen or immediate treatment like being given antibiotics?

I don’t have much experience of how admissions work.

Yes he was lucky. There were three patients in the corridor in beds. All were being attended to.

his is survivorship bias. Your husband lucked out with attentive staff. Plenty of people have died waiting in those same corridors.

Well maybe she had mental health problems and I am misjudging her. I certainly wouldn't dismiss anyone with such problems as I suffer myself.

Kate1949

Well CariadAgain I beg to differ. I'd say she was definitely using it as a hostel. Everyone who came in was registered at the desk then a short wait before being called in for an initial assessment then the long wait for a doctor. She just walked in and set up her bed. She was there all night. Two days later my DD took me back to the hospital to pick up some meds and we once again saw this lady getting out of a taxi with her baggage and heading into A&E.

Unfortunately people with MH problems get even worse waiting times and often very uncaring treatment. It is truly disgraceful.

Lathyrus3

I’ve just read news reports of 100s of people going to hospital with flu.

They can’t all be seriously ill, can they? To the point where they need intensive help.

Are we expecting to be nursed in hospital when we are ill rather than at home, do you think?

They won't be getting admitted if they don't need to be.

NotSpaghetti

^being treated on a trolley in a crowded hospital corridor with people to-ing and fro-ing and dying on a trolley^ is obviously degrading.

It wasn't a thread about dying and degradation I thought!

But some people being treated in corridors are dying.

Allira

It's not new, is it theworriedwell.

I remember being in a wheelchair in a corridor after an accident, with an ambulance man in attendance. I told him he could go as he'd delivered me safely to the hospital. He said he couldn't until I'd been triaged.
That took a very long time and, of course, meant his ambulance was outside and unable to attend to anyone else.

Patients have died waiting for hours outside hospitals in ambulances.

No definitely not new, as I said 54 years since I was parked in a linen cupboard, they had no idea what to do with me or other newly delivered women and their babies. What they did was open a condemned ward and put us in there.

My granddaughter is a blue light ambulance driver, she is 22 years old and in between shifts studying to qualify as a Paramedic. She tells us of a service under great pressure, not least because of getting through impossible traffic situations, patients who are obstinate, even violent, (she has been attacked twice) time schedules that are impossible to keep to, endless hold ups delivering patients into hospital care, hold ups collecting patients to take to their own homes, endless paper work, and so it goes on. She loves the job!! and I'm amazed at how committed she is. I don't know what the answers are, but going on strike is definitely not the answer when vulnerable people are on the receiving end. The resident doctors should be ashamed at even contemplating such cruel action.

Well CariadAgain I beg to differ. I'd say she was definitely using it as a hostel. Everyone who came in was registered at the desk then a short wait before being called in for an initial assessment then the long wait for a doctor. She just walked in and set up her bed. She was there all night. Two days later my DD took me back to the hospital to pick up some meds and we once again saw this lady getting out of a taxi with her baggage and heading into A&E.

So much money is wasted. I was booked in for 5 physio sessions-one per week for 5 weeks. I received five separate letters each also containing instructions on how to get to the hospital etc. That would not happen in a private company who would be counting costs.

CariadAgain

Allira - THREE days!!!!!! I rest my case....

CariadAgain, it was eighteen months ago now, I hope they got beds that night!
(Wales, *CariadAgain 🤔)