Patients turned away from hospital
LANARKSHIRE hospitals were the worst hit board in Scotland and, at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, some patients arriving at A&E were yesterday being turned away.
Signs outside the unit warned patients not to book in unless they had “a very serious illness or injury”. Many visitors turned back after seeing the notices, while those who did go in were informed they couldn’t be treated thoroughly or at all.
Frances Finnigan, 46, from Hamilton, had fallen at work and was referred to Hairmyres by NHS24. She said: “When I went in the receptionist just asked, ‘What are you doing up here?’
“I had phoned NHS24 and they said they would let the hospital know to expect me, but nobody was. She said I could take a seat and I might get treated.
“I did get seen after a while, and they did an X-ray but they couldn’t print it out so they had to walk round to the room and physically look at it, then come back to me.”
Geraldine Casci, 63, from East Kilbride, wasn’t able to get any treatment for a knee injury.
The home carer said: “They said they couldn’t treat me, but if I came back on Monday they might. It’s disappointing as I’ve come all the way out here.”
Ronald McNab, 84, from Clarkston, had come to the hospital with his wife, who had had a heart attack.
He said: “Things have been alright as my wife was quite seriously ill, but they kept saying the computer problems were making things worse.”
While some patients were turned away, others were directed to hospitals in Glasgow.
Karen Boyd, 39, had brought her 13-year-old daughter Jorja to A&E after she injured her hand.
Karen, an education worker, said: “The nurse apologised and said there had been an IT problem Lanarkshire-wide. They said the Glasgow hospitals were all functioning and it was up to us if we wanted to go there, but there were no X-ray facilities here they could use.”
An NHS Lanarkshire spokesman said: “All our sites remain open, however we are appealing to the public only to attend hospital for emergency treatment during this period.”