'Corridor' nurses wanted to help ease NHS winter crisis

Hospitals across England remain under extreme pressure from winter flu cases with one hospital advertising for nurses to take on "corridor shifts" in its A&E department to help manage the surge in patients.

- RACHEL CLUN

Last week nearly 20 hospitals declared critical incidents - the NHS's highest alert level - to help cope with an influx of emergency presentations from the spike in serious winter flu cases, with people being treated in corridors and a patient at one hospital forced to wait 50 hours to be admitted to a ward.

Some hospitals have restricted visitor numbers while others are encouraging people to wear surgical masks to limit the spread of viruses. Whittington Hospital in Archway, north London, posted bank shifts available for A&E nurses, which said "corridor care" in the notes. Whittington Health NHS Trust said it is experiencing "very significant pressure" in its urgent and emergency care.

"In these circumstances, we may have to provide care in corridors, as an absolute last resort," a trust spokesperson said. "In common with other hospitals, where this is necessary we bring in additional staff on a temporary basis to ensure that care can be delivered as safely and compassionately as possible to patients."

NHS England figures showed more than a third (35.4 per cent) of ambulance patients at Whittington Hospital waited more than 30 minutes to be handed to A&E teams last week.