Maureen Harman’s son said she waited for more than two days in a Wigan Infirmary corridor as the hospital A&E around her was ‘like a war zone’
An 88-year-old woman was stripped of her dignity while waiting more than two days in a corridor for an NHS hospital bed, her son has revealed.
Nick Harman said his mother Maureen spent 60 hours in a queue to be put on a ward this week at Wigan Infirmary in Greater Manchester. She had been sent there by her GP having suffered jaundice for more than a week, which could be a sign of liver problems or a tumour.
While Nick, 56, said the staff had been brilliant, he described its A&E as like a war zone. He added: “It’s not acceptable in this day and age in Britain. She is sitting on her bed, she’s getting uncomfortable, there are people in corridors, there are people coming in escorted by police, drug addicts and things. Your dignity is gone. You’re doing things in the corridor, with people who are strangers. You have to deal with the illness and worrying about your mother plus the dignity side of things, too.”
Nick, a health and safety consultant, said Maureen was not the only one waiting in the corridors, with several other patients on gurneys and trolleys around her. After arriving on Monday, the Harmans were shocked to be told there was a 49-hour wait for beds. As of Thursday night, Maureen was still waiting for scans to help determine the cause of her prolonged bout of jaundice.
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust apologised for the long waits and said it had been “extremely busy”. The Trust added that its staff are doing “everything we can to keep our patients safe and meet the demands of all the patients attending our emergency department”.
Last year, nearly 39,000 patients spent more than a day in the region’s emergency departments because there were no hospital beds for them.
Of those, more than 1,000 waited longer than three days, often spending much of that time on a trolley in the corridor. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine warned that the situation could be costing thousands of lives across the nation.
NHS England North West Medical Director Dr Michael Gregory said demand had risen in every part of the NHS in recent years, leading to ongoing pressure, particularly in the winter months.
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