Emergency care
not discuss it with them, but they would have liked them to. In addition, of those who tried to contact any health and social care services after leaving A&E, 28% said they were not available when needed. Younger people aged 16-35 were more likely
to report a negative experience of urgent and emergency care services as were patients with a disability, and frail patients (A&E only). Frail and disabled patients reported worse experiences with regards to being listened to and were less likely to feel they were treated with respect and dignity while in A&E. Responses indicated that not being able
to get a GP appointment quickly enough and wanting to be seen on the same day were both factors directly influencing people’s decisions to seek treatment at a UEC service. Of those who went directly to A&E, 20% went because they thought their GP practice would not be able to help (UTC 21%), and 26% wanted to be seen on the same day (UTC 34%). Of those who contacted another service, over a third contacted a GP (36%; UTC 48%), but 28% of those said the practice did not provide the help they needed (UTC 44%). The survey was part of the NHS Patient Survey Programme (NPSP) and is conducted every two years. Chris Dzikiti, CQC’s Interim Chief Inspector of Healthcare, said: “The results demonstrate how the stream of demand is continuing to drive lengthy waits, and cause difficultly for some patients in accessing information, emotional support and adequate pain relief. They also show the impact for staff when the number of people seeking urgent and emergency care is so high and resources are stretched.” In addition to a report on the findings for
England, CQC also published the results for each of the 120 individual Trusts that took part so that people can see how their local services performed, and a report identifying those Trusts
that have performed better or worse across the survey overall.2
Winter pressures As the NHS entered the period historically associated with Winter pressures in A&E, it became clear that hospitals were starting to struggle. Almost nine out of 10 UK A&E clinicians who responded to a survey by The Royal College of Emergency Medicine in November3
said they
weren’t confident that their departments would cope well in the coming winter. Furthermore, 94% said that patients are being put at risk due to the pressures experienced. The survey revealed: l 83% of respondents had patients being cared for in corridors.
l 51% of respondents had patients being cared for in ambulances outside their Emergency Department.
l 94% said they feel patients are coming to harm because of conditions.
l Only one in 10 respondents (11%) said they felt better prepared this winter than they did last year.
A more recent survey, in January 2025, found that fewer than one in 10 emergency doctors said they feel confident they could evacuate their A&Es in a crisis, because they are routinely too full. The RCEM described the research as “sobering proof that that the Urgent and Emergency Care system in this country falls short of what the public deserve.”4 The survey found: 88.7% reported that their hospital’s major incident plan required them to clear the ED but only 9.5% thought this was achievable; 100% of respondents said their ED experienced crowding, with 53.5% saying their ED was crowded more than 75% of the time; 5% were confident that their ED could adequately respond to a major incident.
Dr. Adrian Boyle commented: “We have seen
how sorely unprepared the health system is to deal with events as predictable as a surge in flu and cold weather. If hospitals currently don’t have capacity to deliver safe emergency care on a normal day – how can we expect them to respond to a major incident?...Overcrowded A&Es, burnt-out doctors and nurses forced to deliver care to people in corridors – this is now the norm.”
RCEM also warned that NHS England’s guidance on how patients can be ‘safely’ treated in corridors as a “normalisation of the unacceptable and dangerous”.
Nurses’ experiences The survey results by the RCEM was subsequently followed by a repprt by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which delved further into the experiences of nursing staff on the frontline of care.5
RCN warned that “patients
are dying in corridors and sometimes going undiscovered for hours”. A survey of NHS nursing staff showed the scale of the corridor care crisis in hospitals, with almost seven in ten (66.81%) saying they were delivering care in over- crowded or unsuitable places - like corridors, converted cupboards and even car parks - on a daily basis. The experiences of over 5,000 nursing staff
across the UK highlighted a devastating collapse in care standards, with patients “routinely coming to harm”, according to the report by the RCN. Demoralised nursing staff reported caring for as many as 40 patients in a single corridor, unable to access oxygen, cardiac monitors, suction and other lifesaving equipment. They also reported female patients miscarrying in corridors, while others said that they could not provide adequate or timely CPR to patients having heart attacks. More than nine in ten (90.82%) of those surveyed said that patient safety is being compromised. A nurse working in the South East of England,
said: “We have had cardiac arrests in the corridor or in cubicles blocked by patients on trolleys in front of them, delaying lifesaving CPR. Despite these never events, we still are obliged
February 2025 I
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