Actual endemism is what every emergency department in Wales would now call this state of affairs, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said at the time. Corridor care, the last kind of mandate to which emergency clinicians in the UK put the Welsh government, was something the RCEM demanded be stopped forthwith.
This survey figure horse-traded by the Welsh government was for three days in January and February, and every one of the twelve emergency departments in Wales was admitting patients under corridor or waiting area care. There should be no routine care of people in an environment that is non-clinical and therefore not fitting, said a spokesperson of the Welsh government, but recognition must be given that the NHS sometimes does encounter exceptional pressure.
Dr. Rob Perry, RCEM Vice-President for Wales, explained that the survey proves very great pressures indeed are common upon the emergency departments across Wales. "And this cannot be written out as seasonal. Corridor care is hazardous, degrading, inhumane, and is now an endemic practice in Wales. The matter must be placed as a political priority and acted on right away."
More was painted this year with the survey results that follow a suite of monthly data on emergency department performance in Wales. A predicted scenario for February was doom for emergency care in Wales, wherein 67.7 percent of patients spent less than four hours in an NHS ED from arrival to admission, transfer, or discharge, with less than 95 percent of that cohort hitting the mark.
A total of 8,955 patients were termed to have waited for more than 12 hours, that wait being repeatedly stated to be unacceptable; the best statistical performance report is, however, inpatient, with a daily average of about 1,500 such cases where discharge has been delayed for over 48 hours after being deemed medically fit for discharge.
Any unacceptably long waits, overcrowding, or corridor care—all that is unacceptable. Our members and our patients deserve so much better," a Welsh Government spokesperson said, adding that the pressures were not unique to Wales. "This year, we have also made available more than £200m in extra funding to support health and care services to be able to safely assist more individuals in their homes and improve timely discharges, which is critical to alleviating the pressure."