Royal College of Nursing says people ‘routinely coming to harm’ with vital equipment not available and staff too busy

Patients are dying in hospital corridors and going undiscovered for hours, while others who suffer heart attacks cannot be given CPR because of overcrowding in walkways, a bombshell report on the state of the NHS has revealed.

So many patients are being cared for in hospital corridors across the UK that in some cases pregnant women are having miscarriages outside wards while other patients are unable to call for help because they have no call bell and are subjected to “animal-like conditions”, said the Royal College of Nursing.

Patients have died on trolleys and chairs in corridors and waiting rooms in settings where “all the fundamentals of care have broken down”.

One nurse had seen “cardiac arrests in the corridor with no crash bell, crash trolley, oxygen, defibrillator … straddling a patient doing CPR while everyone watches on”.

Patients are being given drugs, intravenous infusions and, in one case, a blood transfusion in corridors which are cold, noisy and too cramped to allow them to have loved ones present.

One nurse had to tell a patient he was dying as other patients were wheeled past and orders were shouted across the unit. They said: “How is it fair to tell someone they are dying in a corridor?”

Lack of space means patients also being treated in storerooms, car parks, offices and even toilets.