A woman was left lying on a trolley in a Lanarkshire A&E unit for almost 50 hours before receiving treatment.
Mother-of-two Lynn Nelson – who was suffering from flu, pneumonia and a collapsed lung – said she believed she was going to die.
Mrs Nelson was left in a holding wing of University Hospital Wishaw for more than two days.
The 45-year-old said: “I genuinely did not believe I would leave that hospital.”
Her husband Richard told the Scottish Daily Express: “We were failed by the NHS. It hurt me so much to have to watch Lynn firstly sitting on a chair in A&E and then lying on a trolley for 50 hours.”
The harrowing case follows the damning ‘corridor care’ report last week by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). It told how it was normal for patients to be left for days on chairs or trolleys in “inappropriate settings”.
Mrs Nelson’s ordeal began on December 17 when a nurse at her GP’s surgery in Carluke advised her husband to take her to hospital. The nurse told them there was no point waiting for an ambulance as it could take more than six hours to arrive.
Mr Nelson, 45, said they found the hospital like “a war zone” with people “lying on the floor” in the waiting area.
He said: “Being an NHS employee myself and a member of the Royal College of Nursing , I thought, ‘This is not what our NHS is supposed to be. It is broken. This is not healthcare.’”
After four hours, Mrs Nelson was placed on a trolley in ‘Ambulatory Care’ – a holding zone. Her husband went home and arrived at lunchtime the next day to find her still in the same place. She was barely speaking, unwashed and still wearing the same clothes.
At 3.30pm she complained of a searing pain in her right lung but it was not addressed until Mr Nelson complained to a charge nurse at 7pm. The following day at 1pm, more than 48 hours after she first arrived, the couple were told Mrs Nelson had a partially collapsed lung.
Cold weather and flu put ‘extra strain’ on hospitals However, there was still no sign of her being moved to a proper ward with a bed. At 6pm on December 19, Mrs Nelson was finally transferred to Ward 7 for treatment – 53 hours after she first arrived.
Mrs Nelson, who was discharged on December 23 just in time for Christmas with her family, is still coping with the aftershock of her illness and recuperating at home.
Her husband, the Conservative councillor for Larkhall, has now submitted a complaint to NHS Lanarkshire.
Russell Coulthard, director of acute services at the health board, said: “We continue to investigate the circumstances of this case through our complaints process. Several NHS Lanarkshire staff worked to support these concerns at the time and to make Mrs Nelson as comfortable as possible and respond to her needs.
“We would like to apologise to any patient who has experienced delays when using our emergency departments in recent weeks. At the time of this admission these services were under significant pressure as a result of particularly high levels of flu across the UK. The cold weather and icy conditions in this period also placed extra strain on our hospitals.”
Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “I want to apologise to anyone whose experience of the NHS has fallen short of the standards we all expect from our health service.”
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