A woman waited 14hrs in A&E for bed on my ward

NURSE Melanie Gale has witnessed patients in tears because they cannot get home for want of a care package.

The effect of bed blocking is being felt for many elderly patients at the start and end of hospital stays and is causing disruptions throughout hospitals.

Melanie, 47, has been a nurse for 25 years and is a GMB union rep.

She said: “As a nurse you are aware of the problems of delayed discharge because of home care packages not being set up. A lot of that is down to staff sickness in social care or there not being enough staff. It takes a long time to resource a care package.”

And she added: “A lot of time our patients are quite upset. They understand why they were in hospital as they were poorly or sick but they don’t understand why they have to stay in hospital when they are well.

“They want to be at home with their families, to get back to some kind of normality of life again and then they are told the care package isn’t in place. Their faces drop and many say they are just going to go home anyway, they don’t want to wait. It’s not nice.

“There is a real depression among them and families feel quite frustrated and guilty as a lot of them feel they should be helping until it can be put in place, but can’t because of work commitments or child care.

“Families shouldn’t be expected to step in because social partnerships don’t have enough staff.”

The longest one of her patients had to wait was two and a half months.

She said: “That was pretty souldestroying. In a hospital people will get low and depression will kick in, patients are not in their own bed or their own environment.

She revealed: “A woman waited 14 hours in A&E before she got a bed on my ward and she was crying.

“Patients are not angry at the NHS but with Scottish Government. The First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary need to speak to these patients.

“The Scottish Government do not see these patients as a human being, as someone’s mum or dad.

“Every colleague in the NHS gives 110 per cent every day even though their bodies are running at 50 per cent.

“If things continue the way they are we will lose more staff. It is scary to think the NHS may never recover from this. The NHS is the most important thing we have. We have to save it.”

Melanie lays the blame at the Scottish Government’s door. She said: “They need to put more money and resources in. Patients shouldn’t be waiting a long time to get home.”

But she said the Scottish Government’s plan to take over care home beds as an interim measure to curb the crisis would bring more problems.

She said: “If our patients are transferred into the interim care beds, how much longer will people in the community who need to be in care homes have to wait? And another 300 beds will not sort out the situation.

“Covid was bad but this is much worse. We are at breaking point, we are on our knees. We need more help and we need it now.”

Families should not be expected to step in MELANIE GALE ON WORKING IN THE NHS