WHILE long-haul passengers may welcome care packs, including an eye mask, ear plugs, toothbrush and comb, when recently given to "corridor patients" in a UK hospital, these comforts only left them bemused.
With hospital bed shortages at crisis levels, patients are increasingly left for hours or even days on trolleys, chairs or temporary beds in hospital corridors, with dedicated "corridor medics" (an actual position title) to staff them.
That the care packs also contained a bottle of water, and "do not disturb" and "wake me for up for food" stickers to put on the eye masks, did little to put patients in a holiday mood.
"You could hear people screaming, shouting, fights happening in A&E, in the reception, police coming past, and then you've got complete strangers just staring because where else are they meant to look?" complained one patient, though this could still account for many a holiday experience.
If the well-meaning efforts of staff didn't go down well with patients, UK Health Minister Karin Smyth was similarly unimpressed, and reportedly said it is "unacceptable" that corridor care had become routine in the NHS and the practice "must end".
Giving patients vanity packages risked "normalising" this type of care, she added.
The bed shortage is driven by so-called 'bed blockers' - patients well enough to be discharged but unable to get care at home.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 23 Apr 25
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