Wife’s despairing letter over cancer victim in agonising wait for NHS bed

A TERMINALLY-ill cancer patient’s wife has blasted Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt over their NHS wait by urging him to sort “his s***” out.

In a no-holds barred Facebook post Becky Wilkinson, from Stafford, slammed Mr Hunt after her husband Steve was forced to wait 16 hours for a hospital bed.

She had begged medics to help him after he went an entire day without eating as food and even drinking were making him violently ill.

But while they waited for hours, they watched frustrated as “minor injury after minor injury” came in and received treatment at Royal Stoke Hospital.

In a social media rant now seen by hundreds of people, Mrs Wilkinson said it was not because medics did not want to treat him but “they simply couldn’t”.

In the end following their extremely long wait her husband was finally admitted to a ward for treatment.

She wrote on Facebook: “If I treated my dog the way my husband has been treated I would be banned from looking after animals for life.

“Jeremy Hunt, sort your s*** out (sorry Mum). Let those doctors and Trauma... terminally ill Steve Wilkinson, who could not eat during his 16-hour ordeal because it made him violently sick, puts his head on his wife Becky’s shoulder in A&E as they wait for a bed and, below, in happier times I’m afraid, has not been so. The people who work in Royal Stoke have been amazing. “I have felt their pain as they have looked at us and looked away as they don’t have the resources to do their job. “We sat for hours, to the point I ended up crying and begging them to help my husband – no-one came. “Not because they didn’t want to but because they simply couldn’t.” In a later Facebook update Mrs Wilkinson added: “UHNM have been to talk to us and really listened to why we were so upset on Monday. If only there could be 24/7 nursing for the oncology unit – perhaps food for thought in the budget?”

Yesterday Liz Rix, chief nurse for the UHNM NHS Trust, said that they had since apologised to the Wilkinsons.

She said: “Clinicians have been in regular contact with Mr Wilkinson and his family.

“Our services can become extremely busy and in some instances patients will then have to wait in A&E for a bed to become available.

“We know A&E is not the best environment for cancer patients. We met with and apologised to Mr Wilkinson and his family.”