Doctor says his hospital is using corridor as an emergency department

A doctor has explained how NHS pressure has left him using a hospital corridor as an emergency department.

Speaking to the BBC, Dr Andy Ashton who is a consultant A&E doctor at Whiston Hospital in Prescot, Merseyside, said his colleagues and him had put numbers on the wall to tell where the patients are, showing they were slowly changing the functions of the corridor.

"We didn't want to say that the corridor was actually a place but we've had to do that," he said.

"Gradually the corridor is just becoming the emergency department.

"I work in a long thin emergency department that used to be called a corridor".

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His comments come amid growing concern about the state of the NHS. Prime minister Rishi Sunak is to hold crunch talks with health leaders in Downing Street to deal with a number of concerns, including a potential junior doctor strike in March and a heavy flu season.

More than a quarter of ambulance patients waited more than an hour to be admitted to A&E last week.

indy100 has contacted Whiston Hospital to comment on this story.

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