Top A&E doctors criticise ‘nonsensical’ new NHS guidance

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. New guidance produced by NHS England in September on how to provide “safe and good quality care” in “temporary” spaces. open image in gallery The Royal College of Emergency Medicine described the guidance as nonsensical The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has denounced the guide as “nonsensical” and “out of touch”, saying that it is “not possible to provide safe and good quality care” in corridors and cupboards in a new position statement. The RCEM’s new statement on the guidance said: “Advice from arm’s length bodies that appear out of touch with what is happening in our departments was always going to be poorly received.” Using corridors will result in long emergency department waits which are “associated with measurable harm to patients”, it said. “NHS staff are working hard to provide the safest possible care for patients this winter, including better use of live data, an expansion of same day emergency care, and more care in the community.”