A recent report from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which contains statements from 5,000 NHS nursing staff, has revealed shocking insight into the current care crisis in hospitals across the UK and reflects some of the complaints we see from our clients.

The RNC’s report says:

• 8% of NHS nursing staff said that on a daily basis they are providing care for patients in unsuitable and un-safe places, such as cupboards, corridors and car parks.
• Patients are abandoned and dying in these unsuitable places. Pregnant women are miscarrying in corridors. Patients are suffering cardiac arrests in cupboards due to nurses being unable to access the required life-saving equipment. Patients are also being abandoned without access to bathroom facilities, resulting in patients soiling themselves.
• 8% of the NHS nursing staff reported that they believe patient safety is being compromised in hospitals.
• Nursing staff are “demoralised” and heartbroken by the unfit conditions they are providing care in.

Why has this happened?

The   current state of the A&E departments across the country has been compounded by a number of issues:

• A backlog of appointments for delayed treatment caused by long waiting lists and the recent strikes within hospitals by  junior doctors and  nurses which has meant that opportunities to  treat infections or life threatening conditions at an early stage has been lost.
• A lack of resources and staffing levels within hospitals which means that they are unable to cope with the number of people attending A&E.
• The ambulance staff are not meant to leave patients on trolleys until they have been handed over the A&E staff which causes a further delay in their ability to respond to further emergencies in  appropriate time.
• A rise in the number of people attending A&E as they are unable to obtain appointments at the GP or advice from a walk in centre. Some people were waiting for 48 hours in A&E for non- critical conditions and had further accidents attempting to attend during the snow and ice.
• The reluctance of people to attend vaccinations has meant there have been greater numbers suffering from Covid, winter flu and associated conditions.

These distressing experiences reflect the findings of Lord Darzi’s report on the “awful” state of the NHS which we have previously discussed in November 2024 as below:

Lord Darzi, an independent peer and former NHS health surgeon, has just delivered a report following a  nine week review of the  NHS which  reflects the  complaints that we  see on a  regular  basis from our clients  at McHale and Co.

The report said the NHS had been left chronically weakened by the policy of austerity of the 2010s and in particular a lack of investment in buildings and technology. This has left it with crumbling hospitals, fewer scanners than many other developed nations and years behind the private sector in terms of digital innovation.

This has contributed to falling levels of productivity in hospitals, with rises in staff not matched by increases in the numbers of patients being seen. It has meant hospitals have been sucking up an ever-increasing amount of the budget, when more care should be shifted into the community.  As resources and staffing have been affected adversely, this has meant that waiting lists have grown to 7.6 million people causing  delay in the treatment of  serious conditions such as  cancer, high blood pressure , respiratory illness and diabetes, meaning that early  treatment opportunities have been missed .

Lord Darzi’s report says:

• A&E is in an “awful state” – with long waits likely to be causing an additional 14,000 more deaths a year, according to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine
• the state of the NHS is not entirely due to what has happened within the health service, but also because the health of the nation has deteriorated – for example bringing a surge in long-term mental health conditions
• rising levels of illness are risking economic prosperity, with 2.8 million people unable to work because of poor health
• the UK has higher cancer mortality rates than other countries
• although hospital staff numbers have increased since the pandemic, the number of appointments and procedures hasn’t because “patients no longer flow through hospitals as they should”
• the NHS has been starved of capital investment, meaning “crumbling buildings”, mental health patients in “Victoria-era cells infested with vermin” and “parts of the NHS operating in decrepit portacabins”

Lord Darzi said: “Although I have worked in the NHS for more than 30 years, I have been shocked by what I have found during this investigation – not just in the health service, but in the state of the nation’s health.”

Nimish Patel,  Head of Personal Injury and Clinical negligence,  has said that this review follows a similar  campaign from  earlier this year  from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s (RCEM) “Resuscitate Emergency Care” manifesto.

RCEM’s manifesto highlights several critical areas that require urgent action to reduce the current strain on emergency care services in the UK. A recent BBC News report details how NHS waiting times are exceeding recommended limits.

Outlining the RCEM’s “Resuscitate Emergency Care” Manifesto

The RCEM manifesto calls for measures to:

• Reduce overcrowding and eliminate the need for “corridor care” for patients.
• Boost the emergency medicine workforce to ensure adequate staffing levels.
• Guarantee reasonable access to high-quality emergency care for all patients.
• Implement evidence-based strategies to tackle overcrowding.
• Introduce transparent performance metrics to monitor improvement.

Nimish believes these measures are essential to ensure safe and effective emergency care for everyone and has seen the difficulties within healthcare provision with his own mother-in-law over the past 10 months. “We have had to fight relentlessly for basic care within  hospital , with the doctors  feeling powerless  to  make decisions and  chase referrals  between  departments. The situation was also complicated by  the  fact that the computer systems did not update other departments so I was often providing information to doctors that they were  not  aware about! “

Although the report focused on the NHS, Lord Darzi also warned of the “dire” state of social care, which he said was not “valued or resourced sufficiently”.

The growing gap between people’s needs and availability of publicly-funded social care in England was placing “an increasingly large burden on families and on the NHS”, he said.

Sir Keir Starmer, meanwhile, says the 2010s were the “lost decade” for the NHS, adding: “People have every right to be angry. It left the NHS unable to be there for patients today, and totally unprepared for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.

“The NHS is at a fork in the road and we have a choice about how it should meet these rising demands.

“Raise taxes on working people or reform to secure its future. We know working people can’t afford to pay more, so it is reform or die.”

He acknowledged that waiting times in A&E are leading to avoidable deaths: “People’s loved ones who could have been saved. Doctors and nurses whose whole vocation is to save them – hampered from doing so. It’s devastating.”