Patient’s bleak account of ‘Corridor Care’ at the Grange highlights growing healthcare crisis

A cancer patient was forced to spend a “bloody inhumane” night in a chair at the Grange hospital, only getting a bed after collapsing on the floor, the Senedd has heard.

Plaid Cymru’s Peredur Owen Griffiths raised the pensioner’s frank account of so-called corridor care during today’s (October 1) health questions in the Senedd.

Warning corridor care has been normalised, Mr Owen Griffiths said his constituent has been back and forth to the Grange hospital in Cwmbran due to medical complications.

Quoting the pensioner’s damning account, Mr Owen Griffiths said: “‘I’m back in the Grange, feeling crap after one night on a chair. The staff are fantastic but the system definitely isn’t.

“‘The only reason I had a bed at last was because I staggered to the loo and collapsed on the floor. I had to get three nurses to pick me up and plonk me in a chair.

“‘I think they realised that I should get a bed. Some people are spending two nights in a chair. It’s bloody inhumane. Thank you, Welsh Government.'”

‘Plagued by problems’

The South Wales East representative highlighted a petition to end corridor care for the sake of patients and staff who never signed up to provide care in such circumstances.

Health secretary Jeremy Miles replied: “I am as concerned… and it’s upsetting to hear that. I’m very sorry for the experience your constituent has had, which clearly is not acceptable.”

Cautioning that corridor care is a complex question, he said: “I wouldn’t accept the idea of normalisation. I certainly don’t think it is normal and it shouldn’t be normal but there is far too much of it happening in hospitals right across the UK.”

Mr Miles described corridor care as a symptom of a hospital’s inability to manage patient flow but he pointed to signs of improvement with handover delays at the Grange.

Natasha Asghar, the Tory Senedd member for South Wales East, warned the Grange – which cost about £350m and opened in 2020 – has been plagued by problems.

‘Reopen the Royal Gwent’

With the hospital struggling to cope with demands, she raised her constituents’ calls to reopen the A&E department at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport.

Ms Asghar surveyed her constituents, with an “overwhelming” majority of respondents in favour of reopening the A&E unit at the Royal Gwent.

Mr Miles said by making the Grange the main hospital for emergencies other local hospitals can focus on planned operations and appointments, helping to clear waiting lists.

He told the Senedd: “The health board is implementing a model that people across the world are trying to implement, which is to separate emergency from elective care.

“We know from evidence everywhere that’s the best way of improving services overall.”

‘Massive reorganisation’

Laura Anne Jones, who defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK over the summer, called for a review of the “massive reorganisation” that has seen services centralised.

She asked whether the Welsh Government regretted “rushing” into the opening of the “not-fit-for-purpose” Grange, claiming it caused unnecessary suffering for patients.

Ms Jones described the current A&E as a small room with “appalling” waiting lists as she called for an update on plans to extend and reconfigure the hospital.

Mr Miles responded: “What I do regret is that if the member’s party was in government, we wouldn’t have a discussion about free access to health care of any sort.

“We’d all be paying privately for insurance premiums because her party’s been absolutely clear: they wouldn’t have an NHS funded from general taxation.”