Sick treatment Cancer mum medicated in hospital corridor
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.
Louise Cairns told staff she thought her mum would be safer at home – so doctors discharged frail pensioner Marguerite Cross, who was suffering from an infection caused by chemo.
Furious Louise said: “We know the NHS is hard pressed, but to think they are now putting cancer patients on corridors is very worrying.
“I was shocked. There was utterly no privacy for her. They put up a screen at the side of the bed but anyone walking down the corridor could see my mum.
“The hospital hands out a leaflet to families on treating patients with dignity, but this makes a mockery of that.”
Cancer support charity Macmillan yesterday blasted Tory NHS cuts for putting distressed Marguerite through her ordeal.
And St James Hospital in Leeds, one of the country’s leading teaching trusts, admitted the “regrettable” incident was caused by pressure on beds in its cancer unit.
Louise, who lives in Scotland, 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 said. “We were just greeted with the situation when we went to visit.
Weakened
“I thought her being in the corridor was temporary. But when I asked at the desk where they were moving her, I was told they weren’t moving her anywhere, that the hospital was in crisis and that this is the situation on lots of wards.
“Mum had been in hospital for a week with an infection probably caused by her immune system being weakened by her chemotherapy.”
Marguerite was due to stay several more days, but worried Louise, 41, who runs a photography business in Helensburgh, Scotland, wasn’t prepared to leave her mum in such a plight.
“I told the staff she would be safer at home than 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 makes these decisions? No doubt someone in an office. Meanwhile the frontline 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 claimed the “shocking story” was the “latest example of the impact of chronic Tory underfunding of our NHS”. He added: “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.” Professor Suzanne Hinchliffe, chief nurse for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “I would like to apologise to Mrs Cross and her family. Our hospitals are extremely busy and regrettably we had to move some patients temporarily to areas within the ward not normally designated for in-patient beds. “It is so that we can prioritise immediate care for patients who need closer clinical observation and monitoring. “We always assess patients to determine their suitability if any move is being considered, in order to minimise risks. Patients moved in this way are allocated a named nurse and reviewed at frequent, regular intervals.”