Daughter’s fury as cancer mum 81, dumped in bed next to toilet

The daughter of an 81- year- old cancer victim took her out of a top hospital after finding she had been shunted off a ward into a bed in a corridor next to a toilet.

Lou i se Ca i rns , f rom Helensburgh, Argyll, told staff she thought her mum would be safer at home – so doctors discharged frail pensioner Marguerite Cross, suffering from an infection caused by her chemotherapy.herapy.

Furious Louise said: “We know the NHSHS is hard pressed, but to thinknk they are now putting cancerncer patients on corridors is very worrying.

“I was shocked.cked. There was utterly no privacyrivacy for her. They put up a screen at the side of the beded but anyone walkinglking down the corridorrridor could see my mum.

“The hospitalital hands out a leaf let to families on treating patients withith dignity, butut this makess a moc k e r y o f that.” Cancer support charity Macmillan yesterday blasted Tory NHS cuts for putting distressed Marguerite through her ordeal.

St James Hospital in Leeds, one of the country’s leading teachingg trusts,, admitted the

“rregeg r e t t ab l e ” incident was caused by pressure on beds in its cancer unit. Louise had arrived at the hospital to see her mum – who has blood cancer myeloma – only to find someone else in her place on the ward. “No one had called my father or myself to tell us what was going on,” she sasaid. “We were just greeted with the situation when we went to visit. “I thought her being in the corridor was temporary.tem But when I asked at tthe desk where they were movingmovi her, I was told they weren’tweren moving her anywhere, thattha the hospital was in crisiscr and that this is the situation on lots of wards. “Mum had been in hhospital a week with an infection probably cacaused by her immune sysystem being wweakened by her chemo.” Marguerite was due to stay several more days, but worried Louise, 41, who runs a photography business, wasn’t prepared to leave her mum in such a plight.

“I told the staff she would be safer at home then being out there on a corridor,” she said. “They agreed to let mum go. So that night I drove her home, wrapped in her dressing gown, to my dad, Joseph who is fighting prostate cancer.

“Who ma k e s t he s e decisions? No doubt someone in an office. Meanwhile, the frontl ine staff have to go against their training and their ethics – and likely get abuse from concerned families.”

Dany Bell, specialist adviser for treatment and recovery at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “The story of NHS cancer care this year has been one of extraordinary pressure and it is patients who will suffer.

“We know hard- working doctors and nurses do everything they can for people in their care, but it is clear these pressures are beginning to impact on the quality of care some patients are experiencing.”

Shadow Health Minister Justin Madders said: “These kinds of cases are only going to become more common after the Budget failed to offer the support our health service so badly needs.

“Only a Labour government will give the NHS the funding it needs and the dignity patients deserve.

“Until then, I fear care will continue to deteriorate and more and more seriously ill patients will find themselves being left in corridors.”

P r o f e s s o r Su z a n ne Hinchliffe, chief nurse for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “I would like to apologise to Mrs Cross and her fami ly. Our hospitals are extremely busy and regrettably we had to move some patients temporarily to areas within the ward not normal ly designated for inpatient beds.

“It is so that we can prioritise immediate care for patients who need closer clinical observation and monitoring.

“Patients moved in this way are allocated a named nurse and reviewed at frequent, regular intervals.”