Patients are dying alone on wards due to winter pressure, nurses warn

 Stranded patients are dying alone on hospital wards due to winter pressure, a survey of nurses has found.

The poll found that 77 per cent of NHS nurses said that strain on the system over the colder months has had a negative effect on the quality of care they are able to provide to dying patients. Four in 10 (43 per cent) thought the impact had been worse this year than last year.

The survey of 600 nurses, by Nursing Standard and the charity Marie Curie, also found that 65 per cent of nurses say they do not have sufficient time to provide high-quality care for patients who are dying.

Staffing levels and time constraints were the main barriers identified to providing high-quality care, followed by a lack of care provision in the community. The vast majority of nurses raised concerns that many patients were dying in hospital and unable to get home because of funding problems or lack of community care.

Anne Cleary, the deputy director of nursing for Marie Curie, said: “The results illustrate the unsustainable pressure placed on nurses while they shoulder the responsibility of caring for people at the end of their lives.

“We need to support them by investing in community care so that people can get the nursing they need at the end of their lives outside of hospitals, in a place of their choosing.”