Nurses declare 'national emergency' as NHS patients treated in 'cupboards and car parks'
Patients are receiving cancer diagnoses in public areas, and may have to undergo intimate examinations there too, the Royal College of Nursing says...
In order to show how widespread the practice has become, the RCN is calling for mandatory reporting of patients cared for in corridors.
"Our once world-leading services are treating patients in car parks and store cupboards," Prof Ranger will tell delegates.
"The elderly are languishing on chairs for hours on end and patients are dying in corridors. The horror of this situation cannot be understated.
As we are reminded every day, this is the run-up to a general election, so understatement would be off the agenda anyway. The solution is familiar though - mandatory reporting of patients cared for in corridors. In other words more bureaucracy
I took a relative to hospital the other day and there were no patients being treated in the corridors or the car park, even though it's a big car park and it was quite pleasant outside.
I didn't look in any store cupboards.
12 comments:
Sure. I believe them. Who wouldn't?
Thankfully, though, this is a problem we can solve without spending a lot of money. Do you remember those "Nightingale Hospitals" that got packed away after not being used...?
Sam - good idea, and they could be staffed by all the migrant doctors and nurses pouring in every day.
"Our once world-leading services": liar.
dearieme - maybe he means before the NHS.
I suppose, if you want to grab the headlines, visiting the mobile mammogram unit currently parked outside our local hospital could technically count as an ‘intimate examination in a car park’ - it all depends which way you look at it. I believe its next stop is the car park at Tesco - think of the capital they could make from that!
That is not to say the hospital car park hasn’t seen action; numerous babies have been born there in the early hours - including the daughter of some friends - since the decision was taken to replace the manned reception desk with a somewhat unreliable entry-phone system.
Macheath - there a mobile scanning unit near the car park at Derby Royal hospital which may well be counted as car park treatment. The baby you know of and babies born in taxis or ambulances may count too. It's not easy and may be impossible to get at the reality behind the claims.
At least the car parks at Tesco are free!
Tammly - and if the patient fancies a tot of something strong it's there in the store.
Yeah, our local hospital was the same when I last visited. It took all the live long day to get a couple of blood tests done, but there was nobody being treated in the corridors
Bucko - they don't seem to make even obvious efficiency changes. So many blood tests are done these days that they could have something like a blood test drive-through, but it won't happen.
I suppose he meant "must not be understated"?
Anon - yes, it doesn't sound right as it is although we know what is meant. It may just be the reporter's error.
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