"Nightmare wait in A&E"

My elderly mother of 93 was taken to A&E after pressing her call line in distress and pain. She couldn’t walk and her blood pressure was very low. Initially, they wanted us to wait in the waiting room, but after some discussions a very helpful Porter found a bed to enable her to be in the corridor. That’s where she stayed for 15 hours having to go on the commode in the corridor in front of everyone. Eventually, she was assigned a bed and then she was moved around the hospital four times. There was No ward for her to go to so they created makeshift wards firstly in respiratory and then in cardiac catheter which are meant to be Day Wards. No shower facilities and often only one toilet.

The facilities and length of time it took are all unacceptable however the care from the nurses healthcare assistants and in particular from a junior doctor were excellent. The nurses were kind and patient and the doctor was empathetic knowledgeable explaining everything that was happening. Thank you to the team

on the cardiac catheter ward for treating my mother with dignity and kindness. A big thank you to the junior doctor.

Unfortunately, five days later after my mum having been in for six days fell we had a seven hour wait for the ambulance followed by two hours in the ambulance on the car park before once again claiming spot nine on a corridor of 10 patients. When did a corridor become a hospital ward? Once again the nurse and healthcare assistants on the corridor were very helpful and apologetic. This is not the fault of the healthcare workers. It is clearly a management and resource breakdown. Whilst in the makeshift ward, there were few facilities and they forgot to bring the food for lunch one day. On both occasions, her medication that she was regularly on took some time to be organised. I love the NHS, but there needs to be some radical changes. Maybe someone needs to step up and suggest we contribute to some of these services.