NURSES are being left “broken” and “suicidal” as increasing numbers of hospital patients suffer “degrading” treatment in corridors, waiting rooms and even storerooms, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warns.

Many staff are in fear of being struck off the nurses’ register or even prosecuted for causing harm to patients through unsafe care, the union said.

The alarming picture was revealed in a survey of 500 specialist A&E department nurses released by the RCN as the union starts its annual conference today in Brighton.

The survey reported nurses quitting the NHS in despair, adding to the existing shortage of 48,000 nurses, and that the crisis has worsened since the new year.

It includes a catalogue of individual nurses’ experiences and distress.

One emergency care nurse said: “Caring for patients in corridors is destroying staff morale. 

“When you walk into the department and see 15-20 people in the queue, day in day out — you lose any hope it’s going to be a good shift.

“We care for patients the best we can, but something happens every day. I’ve dealt with almost every situation I can imagine in the queue. 

“We’ve had to fit call bells and crash buzzers after people have had cardiac arrests in a corridor. 

“Patients who are incontinent need pads changing but there’s no space or privacy to change them. 

“Patients and their relatives can sometimes be physically or verbally aggressive towards us because they are rightly scared and horrified about the setting they are being treated in — some are then arrested or removed by security. 

“There are delays to medication. The list goes on.

“Having to care for patients in this way makes you feel you are a terrible nurse. 

“Sadly I have become desensitised to it as I’ve been dealing with it for so long. 

“But unless something is done we will continue to lose brilliant nurses who are getting to breaking point.”

The RCN said lack of GP appointments meant more patients are going to hospital emergency departments.

Hospitals are also unable to discharge patients because of a lack of community care provision.

Patients in emergency departments cannot be moved to wards.

The RCN conference will discuss the impact of “corridor care” and the “moral injury and distress for nursing staff, knowing that they are providing suboptimal care to patients.”

RCN general secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen said: “This bleak picture comes from right across the NHS. 

“Patients backed-up through emergency departments is a stark sign of a health and care system grinding to a halt. A corridor is no place to die and no place to work either.

“When ministers fail to grip this situation, they allow patients to pay a high price and nursing staff to work in fear, professionally compromised. 

“Governments must urgently plan and invest to reverse this new trend.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Everyone deserves access to the right care in the right place.

“That is why we are taking action to cut waiting lists, making it easier for patients to access a GP and have almost reached our target of delivering 26,000 additional primary care staff.

“Our Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan will also mean people are seen quicker as we scale up community teams, expand virtual wards, and put 800 new ambulances on the road.

“We know that if we are to build a stronger NHS it is vital to have the workforce to support it — and their health and wellbeing is of paramount importance.”

The government said a long-delayed workforce plan is to be published soon.

What emergency nurses said:

“I had to book into my own department as I was suicidal. I am broken.”

“I left full-time work within the NHS as a direct result of a patient under my care dying whilst in the corridor waiting to get into A&E.”

“This is so discriminatory and degrading towards our patients. But there appears to be little solution. I would not like to need to receive emergency care in the UK at this time.”

“I have handed my notice in and am working the last eight weeks in the Emergency Department. After 11 years dedicated to a career in emergency medicine I am burnt out, mentally exhausted and scared for the future of the NHS.”

“My levels of stress and anxiety are now unsustainable. I’m looking to leave the NHS due to the decline in my mental health. I honestly dread going into work.”

“For the first time in my life I am currently suffering extreme anxiety resulting in a period of sickness absence.”

“I am concerned about my colleagues’ mental health and stress levels.”

“It distresses me that I’m unable to provide the care patients deserve.”

“Patients are definitely receiving poor care. And some not at all, because they walk out after 10 hours of waiting.”

“It just makes you feel embarrassed by this, and you just feel awful for the patients. So undignified.”

“I am often overwhelmed and tearful as I cannot provide safe and effective care.”