Family’s fury as gran spends 10 hours on a trolley at RAH

A frail gran was left in severe pain on a trolley at Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital a for more than 10 hours before being given a bed.

The 64-year-old had no means to call for help and, as a result, soiled herself twice while waiting at A&E, after taking ill at home.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde yesterday apologised for the situation, branding it“unacceptable”.

The woman was desperate to be taken to the Vale of Leven Hospital, a short drive from her Dumbarton home, but was told she would have to go to the RAH as there wasn’t specialist scanning equipment locally.

Her furious son-in-law explained:“She was left sitting in a hospital gown with no food, no water and no call buzzer. She can’t get up to go to the toilet herself.

“You think you are doing the right thing by getting her into hospital, yet we have got a hospital on our doorstep.”

The 46-year-old described the horrific scenes in the RAH last Tuesday night.

He said:“A&E was heaving. People were on trollies in the corridor. People were in chairs in the corridor.

“I can see why, in business, people think of centralising operations but in a lot of businesses you can plan for. You can’t do that with an A&E.

“That place was far too busy. Staff were running about like headless chickens. It was unbelievable.

“There was a boy who had been in a car crash. There was a woman who looked unconscious. It was all ages just lined up.”

The gran, who has osteoporosis and arthritis, had taken ill at home last Monday but was reluctant to go the RAH as she had been stranded there at Christmas and waited seven hours for an ambulance back to the Vale of Leven Hospital.

She arrived at the RAH at 4.30pm last Tuesday and her son-in-law and his wife visited just after 7pm.

They say she was still in A&E, waiting in a side room, and was taken for an X-ray at 7.10pm.

The family say she was offered pain relief just once during the lengthy wait and was offered water, but had no access to a loo.

An NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spokesman told our sister paper the Lennox Herald:“This patient waited longer for a bed than we would have liked. This is unacceptable and we apologise.

“However, the patient was assessed in the emergency department and reviewed by both medical and nursing staff before her admission to the ward.

“During this time, she was regularly monitored by nursing and medical staff in an individual cubicle where she was provided with nursing care.”