Commissioner responds to The State of Emergency Medicine in Wales report published by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine
Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, Rhian Bowen-Davies, said:
“The findings from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine offer further important insights into the scale and impact of care delivery in non-clinical environments, so-called ‘corridor care’, and demonstrate why far more needs to be done to tackle these issues.
“Words like ‘frightening’ and ‘warzone’ should never be used to describe aspects of our health service, yet this kind of language is increasingly common in reports from patients and staff about their experiences, as well and conversations I’ve had with older people and their loved ones across Wales.
“There is growing evidence that corridor care – which puts the safety and dignity of patients at risk – has become normalised within the NHS due to the pressures it faces and is now an everyday reality, as reflected in RCEM’s report.
“This must change rapidly, which is why I want to see coordinated action from health boards and the next Welsh Government that will ensure treatment is provided in appropriate settings at all times.
“This will not only be crucial to enable the delivery of high quality, safe and dignified care, but also to improve people’s expectations about what they might experience should they need treatment and, importantly, to restore trust in our health system that unfortunately seems to have been lost amongst many older people.”
