OAP is left in agony for 1½ hours... just yards from hospital
Why didn’t they help her sooner?
AN elderly woman had to wait for more than an hour on the ground in the rain for medical help despite being outside the entrance to Scotland’s flagship hospital.
The woman, thought to be around 70, had been discharged from the GP assessment unit at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) but had a fall yards from the entrance.
Despite her proximity to the £842million Glasgow hospital, she did not receive help for more than an hour, and lay on the pavement in ‘pain and distress’.
Members of the public and staff tried to get help from A&E, while another called an ambulance.
However, they were told it could be four hours before an ambulance would attend and it took more than an hour for emergency staff to come from the hospital.
One hospital worker said they arrived at 7.30pm on Monday and the woman was already on the ground with a blanket around her.
The worker said it was after 9pm by the time staff on duty came out to help and take her into the hospital. However, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) said the wait was closer to an hour.
The worker said: ‘She was lying in the gutter in the rain. Security had cordoned the area off and got blankets.
‘The woman was in severe pain and very distressed. It was only when a nurse off duty went back into the hospital and put in an emergency call that a team came out.’
Conservative MSP Annie Wells said: ‘It would be inexcusable for a vulnerable pensioner to be left like this anywhere, let alone outside the hospital doors. This hospital hasn’t had its troubles to seek and this is just another very black mark on its copybook.’
A spokesman for NHSGGC said: ‘Our security staff were immediately alerted and gave assistance to the lady, including providing protection from the wind, rain and traffic.
‘They also called for an ambulance to attend. Unfortunately the Scottish Ambulance Service was extremely busy that night and rather than wait, clinical staff from the hospital were called to attend.
‘Clinical staff arranged for appropriate equipment to be available to assist the lady and she was taken back into the emergency department at 9pm.
‘She had previously been seen in the GP assessment unit and discharged.’
A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: ‘We were experiencing a high level of demand on that particular evening but would like to apologise for any unnecessary delays.’
The woman’s current condition is not known.
The QEUH and the adjacent Royal Hospital for Children have been dogged by controversy and problems since they opened.
A probe was launched when a ten-year-old boy died after contracting a fungal infection named cryptococcus, linked to pigeon droppings, in December 2018. A month later a 73-yearold woman, believed to be a cancer patient, also died from the same illness.
The state-of-the art hospital is also under threat from the UK’s medical regulator because there are not enough doctors for patients.
The General Medical Council has placed the internal medicine department, which has 93 junior medics, under ‘enhanced monitoring’ – ruling that its lack of staff makes it an ‘unsafe’ working environment.
Separately, accident and emergency waiting times are also far poorer than the Scottish average.
Comment – Page 18
‘Severe pain and distressed’ ‘Another black mark’