NHS beds crisis: sick patients can sit in A&E, says health minister

Philip Dunne’s comments ‘ignorant and appalling’, says Labour, as claims emerge of patients sleeping on hospital floors

The NHS minister, Philip Dunne, has been accused of “belittling” the beds crisis by telling MPs that patients who need to be admitted can sit on seats in A&E units while they wait for a bed.

Philip Dunne was responding to the disclosure that patients have been forced to sleep on the floor in at least one hospital because the NHS’s beds shortage was so acute.

A combination of factors are at play. Hospitals have fewer beds than last year, so they are less able to deal with the recent, ongoing surge in illness. Last week, for example, the bed occupancy rate at 17 of England’s 153 acute hospital trusts was 98% or more, with the fullest – Walsall healthcare trust – 99.9% occupied.

Related: Nurses leave packed A&E units to treat patients in ambulances

Continue reading... January 09, 2018 at 12:00AM