Hospital patients being treated in corridors

CariadAgain

Kate - I very much doubt if that women was using A & E as a hostel. She probably was genuinely ill/in need of attention and knew how they would treat her (ie expected to just "sit up and shut up") and just publicising the way things were there and keeping herself as comfortable as she could manage whilst waiting for her treatment.

One young girl who was in A&E when we were waiting said she'd been there for days but no-one was bothering to see her. She said she had MH problems and was apparently a regular visitor from what she told us. She was waiting for the mental health team, said she went home to sleep at night and came back each day.

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

NotSpaghetti

Oh that makes more sense now Allira.
I didn't see the news last night and had no idea that this was what the thread was really about!

I'm not sure, I should not assume.

Kate - I very much doubt if that women was using A & E as a hostel. She probably was genuinely ill/in need of attention and knew how they would treat her (ie expected to just "sit up and shut up") and just publicising the way things were there and keeping herself as comfortable as she could manage whilst waiting for her treatment.

I'm sure it happens.

I've sat with DH in A&E for hours and was surprised at some of the reasons why some people were there.
I have also spent a day unexpectedly in a MDU and two patients had been there for three days and nights, sleeping on the seats, waiting for hospital beds. They were still there when I was allowed to go home after ten hours.

Oh that makes more sense now Allira.
I didn't see the news last night and had no idea that this was what the thread was really about!

Certainly - re people accepting it - and I recall a recent post on a local Facebook page. The person concerned was waiting in A & E and had been doing so for hours and could tell it was going to be hours more. They were being expected to sit on a chair (hard one at that) for all that time and just wait until the staff actually got to them to treat them. It looked like they were in for a stint of 24 hours or more before they even got treatment/a bed/whatever!!!

Lots of people sympathising with them. A relative living nearby as I recall and yet they were still planning to try and sleep on that hard chair whilst being forced to wait. I was gobsmacked. I was even more gobsmacked by the fact no-one (not friend/relative/neighbour) seemed to be taking them up on the "I'm being expected to sleep on a hard chair" thing. I googled and, as I recall, there was an Argos open nearby with some very cheap temporary mattress bed type set-ups (camping ones etc) and there was some on Amazon and all round it looked as if a cheapie (£20 or so???) camping bed/mattress type set-up could have been bought and personally delivered by someone who knew them/a helpful volunteer to them in that A & E.

If I'd been nearer and with a car I'd have headed into Argos, bought that temporary bed for them and set it up in the hospital and, if they'd allow it, phoned for a press photographer to come in and take photo of them for a newspaper article about the hospital being inadequate. I would "name and shame" for sure if someone tried to treat me or mine that way. The hospital could complain all they pleased about being publicly embarrassed. Unless and until people are prepared to kick off bigtime at inadequate treatment - it will continue.

No Allira it is not acceptable but, for now at least, it's how it is. During our time in A&E, ambulance crews were bringing in people on beds, one after the other. They were being treated first, quite rightly. One thing I found completely unacceptable was a woman who was sleeping on the seats, lying down, spread across several chairs, covered in her own blanket with all her worldly goods in bags around her. She was obviously using the hospital as a hostel. As I was leaving, I saw her get out of a taxi and go into the A&E. We were there all night and the staff came around with free hot drinks. This woman was first in the queue.

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?

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.

And yes, patients are not being treated as urgently as they should be!

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!

My point, which posters are missing, is that yes, we can be grateful to the staff for their care, but they are being put in impossible situations, patients are not being treated as urgently as they should and is this acceptable to them or us?

I don't believe it is.

I broke my hip 9 years ago. I waited 2 + hours for an Ambulance outside in the road, then another hour in the hospital while being handed over by the lovely Ambulance crew, then into a corridor to wait another lengthy time for an X-ray. Fortunately my daughter appeared at this point and asked roughly how long this would take, fortunately, because at this point, as an extra I had been forgotten!! After this, another lengthy wait for a bed. However, throughout all this saga, the staff couldn't have been kinder, and as helpful as possible. This was a reflection of my on going treatment which was excellent. Tbh the last thing on my mind was supermarket bread or cheap instant coffee!! I was just grateful to be put back together efficiently and able to walk properly!

Lobby our MPs?

The more we accept this as the status quo, the worse it will get and it's not fair on either staff or patients.

Maybe kick up a fuss? Refuse to be treated in a corridor? Make life even more difficult for the already hard pressed staff?

What should we do then?

NotSpaghetti

I don't think anyone is grateful for sometimes being treated in a degrading fashion - but plenty are grateful for being treated well in difficult circumstances.

Maybe I'm missing something here as I'm confused as to where this came from.
Sorry.

And yes Wyllow I also think we need to pay more tax.

We do need to fund our NHS better and also to make it more efficient.

I also said that and agree with Wyllow

But no, we should not be taking this situation for granted even if we are grateful to the staff for doing their best in what is sometimes impossible circumstances.

It is not fair on the patient, nor is it fair on the staff.

Before our experience, when I heard of people being treated in corridors I imagined all sorts of horrors. It wasn't like that at all.

NotSpaghetti

I don't think anyone is grateful for sometimes being treated in a degrading fashion - but plenty are grateful for being treated well in difficult circumstances.

Maybe I'm missing something here as I'm confused as to where this came from.
Sorry.

And yes Wyllow I also think we need to pay more tax.

You don't think being treated on a trolley in a crowded hospital corridor with people to-ing and fro-ing and dying on a trolley is not degrading?

I'm sorry, but I do and it is not acceptable.

I don't think anyone is grateful for sometimes being treated in a degrading fashion - but plenty are grateful for being treated well in difficult circumstances.

Maybe I'm missing something here as I'm confused as to where this came from.
Sorry.

And yes Wyllow I also think we need to pay more tax.

Well they try not to keep you in the corridor for long. There were three patients in the corridor. They were moved to a ward asap, in my husband's case his own room with a private shower.

As for worrying about instant coffee and supermarket bread, words fail me. This is the NHS. Believe me if you are ill and scared, the last thing you worry about is the quality of the breakfast.

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.

Allira

www.itv.com/news/2025-12-10/he-had-no-dignity-90-year-old-man-dies-in-hospital-corridor

No, we should not be grateful for sometimes being treated in a degrading fashion.

We do need to fund our NHS better and also to make it more efficient.

Yes I said privacy but I suppose dignity explains it well.

I was once parked in a linen cupboard when there was no where to put me. I was on a trolley, at least it was quiet and private. That was 54 years ago. I'll never forget that date as my hours old baby was in there with me.

www.itv.com/news/2025-12-10/he-had-no-dignity-90-year-old-man-dies-in-hospital-corridor

No, we should not be grateful for sometimes being treated in a degrading fashion.

We do need to fund our NHS better and also to make it more efficient.