No room so they put me in ‘cupboard’ says dying gran

DYING gran Paulette Robinson was put in a cramped windowless “cupboard” at hospital when no rooms were available.

The retired nurse, who has terminal emphysema, was treated in a bed squeezed next to piles of boxes, oxygen tanks and old chairs and tables.

Paulette wrote on Facebook: “This is where my bed has been put at the Royal Derby Hospital – in a cupboard!!!”

She continued: “I started as a cadet nurse in 1965 and frankly we can definitely do better than floors and cupboards for sick people... such a situation for a 68-year-old with terminal emphysema and heart failure is unacceptable.”

Paulette, who lives in a care home in Duffield, Derbys, praised the medical staff as “absolute heroes”, saying they were doing their best to keep the ward going in the “most difficult of circumstances”.

During her hospital stay in January she posted a series of heartbreaking updates on how overstretched staff were struggling to cope.

One post described how an elderly lady was left sobbing for 20 minutes on a bedpan because there were no staff free to help her.

“It is very distressing listening to an old lady cry,” she wrote.

In another post she told how eight “acutely ill patients” were being looked after by just one “poor overworked” health care assistant.

Paulette added: “Cath Winfield (Derby’s Director of Patient Experience and Chief Nurse) says she’s always willing to help... well come on down dear and get your hands dirty!!!!!”

Ms Winfield said the hospital’s main priority was to keep patients safe.

She said the room Paulette was treated in was specially-designed to accommodate patients when the hospital reaches critical capacity. Ms Winfield said it was fully equipped to provide safe care.