HOSPITAL ORDEAL FOR GRANDFATHER
A GRANDFATHER has relived the agonising 40 hours he spent in A&E waiting for a bed to become available at one of Wales’ biggest hospitals. Martin Nicholas, 63, was at the emergency unit after suffering severe stomach pains.
A GRANDFATHER has relived the agonising 40 hours he spent in A&E waiting for a bed to become available at one of Wales’ biggest hospitals.
Martin Nicholas, 63, was told by his GP to visit the emergency unit at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil after becoming very jaundiced, fatigued and suffering severe stomach pains.
He said he arrived in the A&E department at around 9am on Wednesday, September 1 and was seen for an initial triage – during which he had bloods taken – about an hour and a half later.
But for the next 40 hours he remained on a hard, uncomfortable waiting room chair for a bed to open up on a ward, and as he was expecting surgery he went without eating for close to 30 hours.
“You couldn’t really sleep on those chairs in the waiting room as they were so hard, and I didn’t want to miss my name being called,” he said.
“When I finally got a bed I told the staff that I couldn’t have carried on like that for much longer. I think I would have walked out. I could have collapsed and I don’t think anyone would have noticed.”
Martin, who lives in Mountain Ash in the Cynon Valley, said there were several people in A&E in the same position as him - including an 86-year-old woman who had waited 43 hours before being admitted onto a ward.
He described the emergency department as “manic”, with sick and injured patients filling up the corridors and growing increasingly frustrated at the dire situation.
“They just didn’t have the bed capacity to put us anywhere. There were doctors running around trying to find spare cubicles to put people in to assess them,” he recalled.
Martin, a grandfather-of-10 and a father-of-three, explained he was eventually given a bed on a ward at 2am yesterday where he was finally able to have a good night’s sleep.
“They still don’t know what’s wrong with me. I think they’re a bit flummoxed by it all to be honest,” added Martin, speaking from his hospital bed yesterday.
He added: “It does make me think twice about going to that hospital – and being in that situation – again. But I was told to go there to potentially have surgery. I thought I’d have a bed waiting for me.”
His son Mat Nicholas said: “My dad is a very fit and healthy person and hasn’t really been to the doctors much in his life, so when he says he’s feeling ill you know something isn’t right. So for him to be sat in a plastic chair overnight with no sleep and no bed or blanket offered to him is just ridiculous.”
The Welsh Government target is for 95% of patients to be in A&E no longer than four hours before being admitted, transferred or discharged, while no patient should wait more than 12 hours.
However, at Prince Charles Hospital barely half (52.6%) of patients wait there for four hours or less, according to the latest statistics for July 2021. Only one other A&E department in Wales – Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire - performed worse in July (44.7%).
A spokeswoman for Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, which is responsible for Prince Charles Hospital, said: “We are unable to comment on individual patients but apologise to any patient who has experienced a long wait in any of our emergency departments.
“Prince Charles Hospital, along with all emergency departments and hospitals across South Wales, has been under extreme pressure over the last few weeks as the significant rising Covid rates coming through our emergency departments pose challenges for our services and teams.
“This, along with the rise in patients testing positive when arriving at our emergency departments, have a huge impact on the department. Our staff are working extremely hard under difficult circumstances.
“All patients visiting our emergency departments are triaged on arrival and patients are then seen in order of emergency.
“Therefore, there may be delay for those patients that are not urgent. In addition, our clinical staff regularly review all patients waiting to ensure that any change of condition is also managed appropriately.
“We thank the public for their support and ask that they help us by using our services wisely and appropriately, and taking precautions to reduce the spread of Covid.”