Three in four say expect to stay in a hospital corridor due to overcrowded A&Es

Almost three in four (74%) adults expect to have to stay in a hospital corridor due to a lack of hospital beds, a shocking new poll has revealed.

Another four in five (79%) say it's likely they would have to wait a long time for an ambulance in an emergency.

The new polling was commissioned by the Liberal Democrats, who are calling for emergency action to be taken by the Government to free up hospital beds and ensure people can access the healthcare they need.

The survey asked the public how likely it is they will face certain situations if they require medical care. It found that:

• Almost four in five (79%) say it's likely they would face long ambulance waiting times in an emergency.

• Over seven in ten (74%) say it's likely they would have to stay in a hospital corridor due to a lack of ward space.

• Over eight in ten (83%) say it's likely they would have to wait a long time in A&E when in pain.

Older people, who are most likely to need to use the NHS, are more inclined to have a pessimistic view of the healthcare they will receive. A staggering eight in ten (80%) of those aged 65 say that it would be likely they stay in a hospital corridor, compared to 63% of those aged 18-24. Furthermore, of those aged over 65, over eight in ten (84%) think it's likely they will wait a long time for an ambulance in an emergency, and almost nine in ten (87%) think a long wait for a routine operation is likely. Both of these figures are around 20 percentage points higher than younger generations. 

The new findings follow the latest NHS figures show ambulance delays reached a new record high in December, with stroke and heart attack victims facing average waits of one hour and 33 minutes, more than five times the target of 18 minutes.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for an urgent five point plan to support ambulance services this winter to ease the pressure on hospitals. As part of this the party is calling for a long-term strategy to improve social care, free up hospital beds and stop ambulances waiting outside hospitals.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said: 

“These shocking findings are a damning verdict on this Government’s record on our NHS. It is disgraceful that people are being left abandoned for hours on end in crowded hospital corridors because there are too few hospital beds and wards are simply full to the brim. 

“This new evidence suggests the British public has lost faith in emergency health services as a result of Ministers’ underfunding and gross mismanagement. NHS paramedics, nurses and doctors are this country’s heroes but they are also being badly let down by Ministers who are so clearly out of touch, with no clue how to solve the healthcare crisis they’ve created.

“The Liberal Democrats warned Rishi Sunak and his Government time and again that this winter’s NHS crisis would be devastating if they did not act. Yet Conservative Ministers arrogantly dismissed such warnings and families and their loved ones are now paying a heavy price.” 

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

Savanta interviewed 2,258 UK adults aged 18+ online between 6th and 8th January 2022. Data were weighted to be representative of the UK by age, sex, region and social grade.

Full data here

Ambulance Crisis - 5 Point Winter Plan

1. Launch a campaign to retain, recruit and train paramedics and other ambulance service staff. Like all health and care services, it needs to be properly staffed.
2. Bring forward a fully funded programme to get people, who are medically well enough, discharged from hospital and set up with appropriate social care and support. This will allow people to leave hospital sooner and make more space available for new arrivals. The Government’s current attempt at this through the Adult Social Care Discharge Fund is not good enough, as the funds will come from existing NHS budgets putting even more pressure on other services. It will also not be deployed in full until January next year.
3. In addition to getting people out of hospital so that they get care in a more comfortable setting, the number of beds in hospitals needs to be increased to end excessive handover delays for ambulances, caused by a lack of bed capacity. Any new beds must come with increases in staff to care for those extra patients.
4.  Expand mental health support services to get people the appropriate care they need and reduce the number of call outs for ambulances for mental health reasons. Learning from hospitals that have set up ‘emergency mental health departments’, will not only get people more appropriate care but relieve pressure on A&Es and ambulances.
5. Pass Daisy Cooper MP’s Ambulance Waiting Times Bill into law that would require accessible, localised reports of ambulance response times to be published. This would ensure that ‘hot spots’ with some of the longest waiting times can be identified routinely. 12 hour waits at A&E should also be published from arrival at hospital rather than the ‘decision to admit’ as is current practice, so that the true scale of the problem is clear for all to see.