Bed crisis ‘Least bad’ patients asked to sleep in corridors

Patients are being asked to volunteer to sleep in corridors in order to free up spaces on overrun NHS wards, a report has found.

A survey of frontline doctors found staff are approaching the “least bad” patient in their ward to ask them to give up their bed.

The report on NHS care in December and January by the Royal College of Physicians also reveals concerns that “panicking” managers trying to get patients into beds are sidelining proper infection control.

Patients’ groups said the document showed quality hospital care is now “a lottery” and that the NHS is “on course for catastrophe”. Around 60,000 patients visited A&E a day in England in the last week of December, and data indicates that a quarter had to wait for more than four hours to be seen, with many having to wait up to 12 hours.