Dad’s 30-hour trolley or deal at ‘Third World’ A&E unit
AN 80-year-old dementia patient was left in a corridor for nearly a day and-a half at an A&E unit dubbed “Third World”, it emerged yesterday.
Jackie Weaver branded the conditions “absolutely horrendous” after she said her father spent more than 30 hours waiting for a bed. And she said “distressed” patients were being examined in disabled toilets because there were not enough cubicles.
“I wish I’d taken pictures to send to Theresa May,” said Ms Weaver. “The NHS is at breaking point and something needs to be done.”
The details emerged as A&E consultant Dr Richard Fawcett apologised for “Third World” conditions at privately-financed £350million Royal Stoke University Hospital. Ms Weaver, from Stoke-on-Trent, said her father went into A&E at 4pm on Saturday with breathing difficulties before being diagnosed with pneumonia. He was admitted as an inpatient late on Sunday.”
University Hospitals of North Midlands medical director Dr John Oxtoby said the system in the North Midlands was “under severe and sustained pressure” which was leading to “long waits”.
“Our staff want the best for our patients and at times they find the situation frustrating, which can be reflected on social media,” he said.
IT IS an absolute disgrace that an 80-year-old dementia patient was left on a hospital trolley in a corridor for a day and a half. Forget overcrowding or any of the other excuses the Royal Stoke Hospital may be trying to make. It is inhumane to leave an old man with such a horrible disease so badly cared for.
His daughter has generously said that the staff are not at fault but it is impossible to believe that nothing could have been done to ease his plight.
On this page Leo McKinstry writes that the NHS needs wholesale reform. It most certainly does.
And the first thing that NHS staff might want to concentrate on is not making party politics out of the suffering of its patients by spouting off about third world standards but prioritising the very old, the very young and the very vulnerable. What a shocking tale this is.