Calling for action to end A&E "Corridor Care"

Gideon Amos, MP for Taunton and Wellington, has said “enough is enough” as he backs Liberal Democrat calls for the end of 12-hour A&E waits and ‘corridor care’ in hospitals.

It comes as a Freedom of Information request by the Lib Dems revealed the average hospital trust is now seeing nearly 3,000 patients wait more than 24 hours in A&E each year.

Meanwhile, new national data from The BMJ has stated that more than 13,000 patients waited over three days in England’s emergency departments.

Since being elected, Gideon has campaigned to secure additional funding for improvements across the NHS and particularly at Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital.

The Lib Dems have set out a £1.5bn plan to end ‘corridor care’ and 12-hour waits within a year.

Under their plans, 6,000 more beds would be made available through investment in social care, supporting carers and hospices and boosting ‘step down care’ so that thousands more people can leave hospital each week.

The party would also secure 8,000 extra GPs so that every patient can be seen within a week, or 24 hours if urgent, to ensure fewer people turn to A&E in desperation.

Gideon said: “It’s disgraceful that so many patients are still being treated in corridors.

“While I welcomed the government’s agreement to invest in a new maternity and paediatric unit in Taunton, scheduling it for 2033 is far too late - that investment is needed now.

"Without buildings that work and roofs that keep the water out, our hospitals will simply be unable to end the scandal of ‘corridor care’ across the country. 

"Staff at Musgrove do heroic work in inadequate facilities even when the corridors fill with patients who need help, but enough is enough.

“The government needs to enact our Lib Dem plan now to get our NHS back where it needs to be, something to be protected and defended from underfunding as well as from those who simply want to privatise healthcare."