Top doc’s mum left in agony on trolley for 16hrs
A HOSPITAL consultant says the NHS is at “breaking point” after his seriously ill mother was left on a trolley for 16 hours.
Dr Ravi Gowda, 51, watched in horror as his “scared” mum Jaya Thimmegowda, 71, lay crying from a stomach ulcer, feeling “abandoned”.
Both praised staff but said they were shocked at the “dangerous” shortage of doctors and beds.
Blasting Tories for running down the health service to crisis point, he said: “My mum could have died. The shortage of frontline NHS staff is a risk to patients and people need to be aware of the crisis.”
His mum, who spent 10 days in hospital, collapsed at home in Dewsbury, West Yorks.
She said: “When I got to hospital I laid so many hours crying on a trolley. I couldn’t take it. There was not enough staff to look after all the patients and not enough beds. Even when I got a bed I was moved twice with my drip and treatment. I can’t blame anybody, the doctors and nurses were very good. It’s the funding. There was only one doctor.”
Her son, a Labour Party member, tweeted: “She was very ill and subsequently she was on a trolley in A&E for 16 hours.
“This Government has chronically underresourced our NHS. That’s why in December I’ll be voting Labour.”
Dr Gowda, of Warwick, said they took his mum to Dewsbury District Hospital at 8pm on October 20.
But he was told they no longer admit seriously ill patients at A&E and only stabilise them.
Medics then called his mum an ambulance, which took 90 minutes to arrive. She was moved to Pinderfields
General Hospital in Wakefield, 12 miles away, arriving at midnight.
Dr Gowda said: “There are supposed to be four registrars but there was one. I was holding vigil as I knew things could go wrong. “The staff did their very best but the cuts are hitting hard.
“I left at 2.30am... I came back at noon to find she had had hardly any fluids, hardly any treatment.
“She was seen by a junior doctor and had not been seen by a consultant. She got a bed about 2.30pm.”
Trudie Davies, chief Operating Officer, at The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We apologise for any distress.”
I laid so many hours crying on a trolley. I couldn’t take it
JAYA THIMMEGOWDA
ON HER AGONISING WAIT