‘Asked to lie on floor for six hours at A&E’
Mum blasts hospital after claiming she had to sit in makeshift Covid waiting area, writes Helena Vesty
A FURIOUS mum has shared her ‘disgust’ after claiming she and her ‘very poorly’ son were left sitting on the floor for hours in a Covid waiting area at a hospital.
She says their treatment at Fairfield General Hospital, in Bury, was ‘degrading,’ as they were asked to sit and lie on the floor ‘like they were in a zoo.’
The ‘makeshift’ Covid-19 waiting area is made up of the ‘pavement outside A&E’ and ‘PVC walls,’ claims the mum.
The frustrated mum captured alarming images, showing her 14-year-old on the floor, after staff ‘told them they would have to sit on the floor’ of the ‘coronavirus waiting area,’ which had ‘up to a six hour queue.’
The pair were then joined by other patients, including a man ‘coughing up blood,’ who was also told he would have to ‘sit on the floor.’
In the images, the area appears to feature an Amazon locker where parcels can be collected, and an empty hand sanitiser dispenser.
An Amazon delivery driver came into the space while the boy, and other patients, were inside without a mask, added the worried mum.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the M.E.N. that her son had tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday, October 21, but was unable to keep any food or water down amid severe vomiting.
They sought the advice of 111, which directed them to hospital.
But when they arrived, the mum was left horrified: “It was an appalling standard of care.
“The first time we went to the hospital, it was about 12 noon on Sunday (October 24).
“I told a nurse at reception that my son had tested positive for coronavirus.
“They said we should go to the Covid waiting area - it was the pavement outside A&E, with a brick wall on one side and PVC walls and windows on the other. There was a door at either end. “There was no temporary flooring, just the concrete pavement. “There was a hand sanitiser dispenser but there was nothing in it. Not even an empty bag, just nothing inside it at all. “There were two plastic chairs. My son was very unwell, so I pulled the two chairs together so he could lie down. I was on the floor. We were there for about an hour. “My son was discharged with sickness tablets, but by the time we got the prescription, the hospital pharmacy had closed.”
The family returned to their home in Radcliffe, but the teenager only continued to deteriorate. “He was still deteriorating,” said the mum.
“I called 111 and the call handler said he needed to be put on a drip and that we should go straight back to hospital.
“We were put back in the coronavirus waiting area at Fairfield. There were three other people actually in there as well.
“We were sitting on the floor, it was freezing. I took my coat off so my son could lie on it, he was very poorly.
“Another man came in coughing up blood. A nurse said ‘we’d just have to sit on the floor’ and that it would be ‘six hours before we got seen.’ She said that ‘every other hospital is the same.’”
After hearing that the wait could be up to ‘six hours,’ the worried mother took the ‘difficult decision’ to take her son home again, rather than leave him ‘on the floor.’
“My son was just in pain, I couldn’t let him stay for six hours on the floor,” she said.
“So we went home and I bought him everything I could to try and get some salts back into him.
“Then I rang 111 again in the morning, the call handler said he needed to go back to hospital, I refused to take him back to Fairfield.
“They booked us in at Bolton instead, we arrived at 9am, and by 9.15 he had been triaged and had his own room.
“The difference between the two hospitals was astounding.”
Northern Care Alliance (NCA) NHS Foundation Trust, which operates Fairfield General, said the visit coincided with an ‘extremely busy period’ causing a ‘longer waiting time’ for which the trust says it is ‘sorry.’
My son was just in pain, I couldn’t let him stay for six hours on the floor Mum