An NHS patient revealed he had to wait eight hours to see a doctor, choosing to sleep in his car outside the hospital amid severe winter bed shortages.
Harrogate’s Michael Woodcock suffered from appendicitis when he went to Scarborough Hospital’s A&E department and was faced with sleeping in a chair in a crowded waiting room or in a comfortable car.
This week, the NHS Foundation Trust, a teaching hospital in York and Scarborough, said it was experiencing “the worst pressure on emergency services in our history”.
Due to the NHS crisis, patients are facing record delays in A&E this winter, with some reports of waits of up to four days, while others are in corridors, conference rooms and even are being treated outside the hospital.
An NHS patient revealed he had to wait eight hours to see a doctor amid a winter bed shortage and chose to sleep in a car outside Scarborough Hospital (above). ).
Doctors describe “Dickensian overcrowding” in emergency departments, with some staff forced to ask critically ill patients to monitor their vital signs, and NHS chiefs has warned that the latest crisis could last until Easter.
The NHS bedblock crisis has exploded since the pandemic, with levels of delays in hospital discharges equating to figures nearly triple what they were before Covid.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4 today, Mr Woodcock said:
“I had to stay overnight because my appendix was in danger of bursting.
There were no beds at that point, so I either slept in a chair in the waiting room or actually asked the nurse if I could sleep in the car.
“I ended up getting blankets from the nurses and sleeping in the car for a few hours before returning to the hospital in the morning for surgery.”
Ashley Greene, Chief Executive Officer of Watchdog Health Watch North Yorkshire said:
“This personal experience reiterates the pressures facing the NHS and hospitals in North Yorkshire this winter, which are compounded by new cases of Covid-19 and influenza, and the need for treatment. Alongside the backlog is a continuing workforce crisis in health and social care.
“We continue to emphasize the urgent need to increase personnel, funding and resources across the NHS.”
The NHS Foundation Trust for York and Scarborough Teaching Hospital said in a statement:
Due to the NHS crisis, patients are facing record delays in A&E this winter, with some reports of waits of up to four days, while others are in corridors, conference rooms and even are being treated outside the hospital.Photo: Ambulances lined up outside Portsmouth Hospital
A&E wait times are likely to be the worst on record this winter as hospitals struggle to keep up with surging demand from flu and strep infections.
“Increased staff absences and a large number of patients no longer having to wait to be discharged from the hospital are impacting emergency departments and making it harder for patients to have beds available. It’s been a long wait.
“We are aware that this means many patients spend long hours in the emergency department before being admitted to the ward and we are sorry. Is working.
Doctors describe “Dickensian overcrowding” in emergency departments, with some staff seriously ill as NHS chiefs warn the latest crisis could last until Easter. Patients are forced to monitor their vital signs.
Witnesses have described “soul-destroying” scenes in A&E departments around the country, with countless instances of patients waiting hours to see a doctor.
The health service has blamed it partly on a labor shortage with 130,000 vacancies. In addition, staff absenteeism is increasing.
Compounding the crisis is the fact that 12,000 hospital beds were occupied by bed blockers last week.
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), said up to 500 patients were dying while waiting in overcrowded emergency wards.
Meanwhile, LDP polls show that demand for A&Es is soaring due to difficulties in accessing general practitioners, with one in five patients who were unable to get an in-person appointment last month being replaced by a hospital. was
