Streeting feels shame over hospital corridor treatment

Patients being treated in hospital corridors is the shame of the NHS, Wes Streeting has said, as a new poll indicates satisfaction with the health service has hit a record low.

- MILLIE COOKE

The health secretary, who has spent this week visiting accident and emergency departments across the country during a surge of flu cases, said he was left feeling a “combination of pride and shame”. He said he met one patient – an elderly woman – who had spent 30 hours in a corridor on a trolley.

The new survey found that just 31 per cent of adults are satisfied with the service provided by GPs and hospitals – a historic low for NHS satisfaction ratings. The previous low for public satisfaction was 34 per cent in 1997, just before Tony Blair took office.