Nurses ‘fear being taken to court’ over degrading treatment of patients in corridors

Nurses fear they could be taken to court or struck off over the level of care they are able to give to patients, a union has warned, as the NHS stands on the brink of six more months of strikes.

The Royal College of Nursing, one of the two unions to turn down the recent government pay offer to NHS staff, revealed that over nine in 10 A&E nurses had raised concerns that patients may be receiving unsafe care and that patient dignity, privacy and confidentiality is compromised.

Six in 10 fear they will be struck off the nursing register or have a court case brought against them as a result of patient harm due to their working conditions, the RCN said.

Ms Cullen insisted that patient safety is “at the centre of everything that we do” but warned that it “cannot be guaranteed on any day of the week”, given it is missing 47,000 nurses “every single day and night”.

Speaking before its annual congress in Brighton, which begins on Monday, some nurses described themselves as “broken” and feeling “suicidal”, with corridor treatment being deemed “degrading for patients” and as “destroying staff morale”.

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Source: The Independent, 15 May 2023