A woman has recounted the 'horrific' scenes at a Merseyside hospital where her 80-year-old father spent more than 40 hours on a bed in a corridor after falling ill. Kirsty Gray's father, Colin, had a pacemaker fitted in November for a heart issue. On December 30, he became unwell with shortness of breath and exhaustion, prompting his worried wife to dial 999 for an ambulance.
Ms Gray, 51, who resides in Hampshire, embarked on the 250-mile journey north upon learning that her father had been admitted to Arrowe Park Hospital's Accident and Emergency department - which declared its second critical incident this week. Upon arrival, she was appalled by what she witnessed.
She said: "It was horrific in that A&E department, it was absolutely rammed. There were 15 ambulances queuing up outside and lots of paramedics who couldn't hand their patients over. There were long queues of people in beds in the corridor.". Colin was among the many sick individuals waiting on a bed in the congested corridor. Ms Gray added: "Mum stayed with dad all night while he was in a bed on a packed corridor. She said the staff were amazing and looked after them as well as they could, but he was there for over 40 hours in total. This was an 80-year-old man, basically shoved against a wall in a corridor who was very poorly," reports the Liverpool Echo.
"He didn't even have any monitoring equipment on him, he was just there on a bed. They just didn't have enough staff there and those who were there were doing their best but were on their knees. I can't tell you how lovely they were despite working in extremely challenging circumstances.".
