A 95-year-old man waited 26 hours in a Queen’s Medical Centre corridor for a hospital bed.
Stanley Solomons was admitted to hospital at 11am on Sunday, October 16, after staff at his nursing home became worried about his health.
He was taken in an ambulance with blue lights to QMC and was eventually given a bed on Monday (October 17) afternoon.
Stanley, who is originally from London, trained at the HQ Bletchley Park code breakers during the Second World War and went on to serve with the RAF and later at a ‘listening post’ in Hong Kong.
“When I walked around I could see trolleys with around 20 paramedics with patients. I was told the paramedics hadn’t been able to hand the patients over.
“I was horrified.”
She said her dad was treated in the corridor and was put on an antibiotic drip.
He is now on a ward and is responding to treatment, Cllr Ellis added.
“The staff have been brilliant. You talk to them and they are really worried,” she said.
“Even the cleaner was helping out. Everyone is pulling together and doing their best but the situation is dire.”
Chief Operating Officer for Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, Lisa Kelly said: “We sincerely apologise to Mr Solomons and his family for the delay he has faced being transferred to a ward following his care and treatment in our Emergency Department; this is not the service we aim to provide our patients with.
“Our staff are working incredibly hard to offer the best care and we continue to work with our partners across Nottinghamshire’s health and social care system to discharge patients no longer needing an acute hospital bed”.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “No-one should have to wait longer than necessary for emergency care and the Health and Social Care Secretary has set out her priorities of A, B, C and D – ambulances, backlogs, care, doctors and dentists.
“Our Plan For Patients sets out a range of measures to help ease pressures, including an extra £500 million to speed up discharge and free up hospital beds, reducing waits in A&E and getting ambulances quickly back out on the road.
“This is alongside NHS plans to rapidly boost capacity and resilience ahead of winter, including increasing the number of NHS 999 and 111 call handlers and creating the equivalent of at least 7,000 more beds.”
