The Royal College of Nursing in Yorkshire and the Humber has raised concerns that accident and emergency department pressures are affecting patient safety and dignity.
These pressures are resulting in patients facing long waits for admission in ambulances, receiving care in inappropriate settings and being moved or discharged in the early hours of the morning.
Glenn Turp, regional director for Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “We know that ambulances have queued outside A&E departments because they were unable to transfer their patients into the department because it was already full.
"Pressure on A&E has increased as hospitals cannot discharge patients to the community. This means that there is a constant lack of beds available for emergency departments to move patients on to.”
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