OAP’S 17-HOUR WAIT ON LRI TROLLEY
TERRY, 86, SPENT A WHOLE NIGHT WAITING FOR A BED AT LRI
AN 86-YEAR-OLD man spent 17 hours waiting for a hospital bed after being taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary, it has emerged.
Terry Koerber had to go to hospital after his knee gave way, leaving him unable to walk at Christmas.
But having arrived outside the infirmary’s accident and emergency department at 2pm on the day after Boxing Day, he had to wait an hourand-a-half in the ambulance before he could be taken into the hospital, which he described as being full of patients on trolleys.
After a long wait for an X-ray, there was a further delay getting him a bed – which he finally got at about 7am the following day.
Leicester Hospitals NHS Trust has apologised for Terry’s experience and said there was “exceptional demand” for beds on the day in question.
The great-grandad, who lives alone in the Groby Road area of Leicester, collapsed on Boxing Day after his knee gave way.
His daughter, Karen Stone, 59, who was with him through part of his experience at the hospital, said: “He wasn’t in good shape on Boxing Day and I went to see him twice to help out.
“The next morning I went back and he had no mobility at all, which is not usual for my dad – he’s very active.”
Terry’s wife of 60 years, Beryl, is in a care home and Terry needs to be able to get around his house to stay independent.
At 11am on Friday, December 27, Karen called the NHS for a nonemergency ambulance to take her father to hospital.
She said: “We arrived at the infirmary at about 2pm and there was a wait. There were seven other ambulances in front of us, so we just waited there for an hour-and-a-half – and all this time the ambulance couldn’t go anywhere else, of course.
“We were there that long they asked us if we wanted a cup of tea and a biscuit.
“My dad was in pain and he’d only had paracetamol at home and it wasn’t having much of an effect.
“I appreciate there were people in more need of urgent care, but it’s worrying the NHS is struggling so much and that the response from staff seemed to be that it wasn’t that uncommon.”
At about 3.30pm, Terry was taken into a bay in the hospital and had some tests done before being sent for an X-ray.
Karen, from Barrow upon Soar, said: “It was ages getting the X-ray and I think they had forgotten us. A woman came past and said, ‘Are you still waiting?’ and she got us in for the X-ray. Then, after the X-ray, the bay we had been in was being used, so they put Dad in a corridor with other people on trolleys.”
Karen waited in the corridor with Terry until 9.30pm before having to leave, hoping he would soon be in a bed – particularly as he had not slept the night before, due to the pain in his knee.
But the next day, at 6.30am, he called and told her he was still on the same trolley. Karen said: “He was absolutely exhausted. It was terrible – the system is rubbish.”
Terry came home on Tuesday, January 7, after 11 days in hospital, and he has now made an appointment to have his knee treated at a private hospital.
He said: “I did expect to be waiting quite a while, but not that long.
“I didn’t think it would be so busy – there were people on trolleys all over the place. It was pretty rough.
“They’re obviously short of staff and I was surprised how bad it was.”
During his working life, Terry used to sell slabs, cement and other building materials at his business, TK
Enterprises in Blackbird Road, Leicester, and years of lifting heavy items have taken their toll on his joints.
He thinks a knee implant he had inserted in 2004 is the source of his current problems.
He said: “Although I’m 87 next month, I’m active and I want to get it put right, so I’ve paid to go private now.”