Responding to research from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s Trainee Emergency Research Network1, which estimates that overcrowding in emergency departments contributed towards 554 excess deaths each week in the UK last year, BMA consultants committee emergency medicine lead Dr Den Langhor said:
“More than five hundred people dying each week because of overcrowding in our emergency departments is an absolute scandal. That is the equivalent of a fatal jumbo jet crash every single week in the UK.
“Doctors in emergency departments are doing all they can to provide patients with the care they need, but the system is stacked against them, leading to moral injury as they watch patients come to harm despite their best efforts.
“We’ve had pledges from the Government that they will fix the ‘corridor care’ crisis in our hospitals, and research like this shows the urgency needed to make this happen, illustrating the devastating impact on patients each day it is allowed to continue.
“Eradicating corridor care requires action and resourcing across the health and social care system as each step in the pathway has a knock-on effect on the next. Without this, we will continue to see demand outstripping capacity, patients treated in inappropriate and unsafe spaces, staff burning out and leaving, and tragically, more preventable deaths.”
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Notes to editors
The BMA is a professional association and trade union representing and negotiating on behalf of all doctors in the UK. A leading voice advocating for outstanding health care and a healthy population. An association providing members with excellent individual services and support throughout their lives.
- Please contact the Royal College of Emergency Medicine for more information.