Grandfather left lying in corridor for ten hours after fall at care home
A GRANDFATHER of six was left lying in a hospital corridor in a line of stretchers for ten hours after he had a fall at his care home.
Alzheimer’s sufferer Derek Thomas, 81, had a suspected head injury and needed a CT scan when he was taken to the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow, Essex, on December 27.
Mr Thomas, who lives in a care home in Hertford, arrived at 10.30pm by ambulance but was not taken for his scan until 4am in the morning – and it was only when his son Colin chased up doctors arriving on the morning shift that he was given his test results and the all-clear to go home.
His father, a retired retail worker, then had another accident on Friday evening and had to wait five hours for an ambulance. When they finally arrived, paramedics said he did not need hospital treatment.
Colin Thomas, an architectural engineer, 5 , said: ‘I must have been in this situation at least half a dozen times and it’s never quick.
‘We’ve never waited in corridors like that before, we’ve always been admitted to one of those small rooms where you get examined.’
The married father of two, from Ware, Hertfordshire, added: ‘It’s not the hospital’s fault. You can see the pressure they are under ... The staff are as embarrassed as we are.’