Patients dismiss ‘third world’ hospital claims

PATIENTS have defended their local hospital after a consultant compared conditions there to the ‘third world’.

A&E consultant Richard Fawcett apologised for the situation at the new Royal Stoke University Hospital after patients faced long waits for treatment.

He said frail and elderly patients were being forced to wait in corridors for ‘hours and hours’ due to overcrowding, with one patient claiming to have spent 18 hours on a trolley waiting for a bed.

Mr Fawcett tweeted on Tuesday: ‘I personally apologise to the people of Stoke for the third world conditions of the department due to overcrowding.’ Yesterday, patients were still facing long delays, with reports some people were even sleeping on the floor. But they said it was wrong to suggest conditions there were on a par with the third world.

One middle-aged woman who did not want to be named said: ‘I’m not going to lie I’ve been here over two hours, but they’re busy. But to suggest it’s like living in the middle of nowhere is ridiculous. I think the Government need to do more, but the NHS is still something to be proud of.’ Information screens at the hospital told patients that they faced a waiting time in excess of four hours. Non-emergency patients said they had been seen by the triage nurses after just over an hour.

The hospital was rebuilt between 2009 and 2015 at a cost of £370million, making it one of the most expensive hospitals in the country. In August 2015 the trust launched the new rapid access Royal Stoke MS Centre for Multiple Sclerosis patients. The centre of excellence now cares for 2,500 people. In January 2016 a new £1.5million unit for patients with eye problems opened.

And in September, health chiefs announced that 45 extra beds were to be created at the hospital as part of a £2million investment to speed up A&E waiting times for thousands of patients. The hospital, wich has an annual budget of £750million, employs more than 6,000 staff.

By contrast, the Kamuzu Central Hospital in Malawi in southern Africa has just 59 doctors and 286 nursing staff, serving a population of four million. Overcrowding is constantly a problem, and on Christmas Day four children died when a power cut stopped their oxygen ventilators working.

The hospital, in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe, is considered one of the country’s best.