Pensioner forced to sit in wheelchair at Lincoln A&E for 30 hours waiting for a bed

A 70-year-old woman has made an official complaint after claiming she was forced to sit in her wheelchair on a drip in an accident and emergency unit for 30 hours because of a shortage of hospital beds.

Patricia Courtney, from Willingham by Stow in Lincolnshire, was told by her GP to go to Lincoln A and E after a problem with her kidney was flagged during a routine blood test.

Mrs Courtney called 999, but was told to expect a two-hour wait for an ambulance. Instead, her husband Alan, 58, drove her to Lincoln County Hospital where she checked in at A and E.

Mrs Courtney said: "It was then an hour-and-a-half to two hours before I was called through to see a doctor who inserted a cannula and brought up a drip.

"I was then sent to a waiting room to wait for a bed. I was in my wheelchair for 30 hours with a drip attached which was very uncomfortable because of my stoma bag on the right hand side and hernias on the left.

"I asked for pain relief but never got it."

Mrs Courtney, who has never fully recovered after suffering multiple organ failure during major surgery in 2011, said she couldn't even go to the toilet without "needing to be wheeled there".

She was eventually given a bed, which the pensioner said was "lucky" as the 86-year-old woman next to her had waited more than 42 hours.

She said there were further problems when her cannula caused an infection, the hospital ran out of hot drinks and she was "put in a single room in the surgical emergency admissions unit with no heating".

"I had to telephone my husband to fetch me a duvet to keep me warm," she said.

She later informed a nurse that her stoma bag needed emptying, but said the response was "awful".

"The nurse threw a washing up bowl on the bed and did not close the curtains," she said. "I asked for help and she screamed from across the room: 'What do you do when you are at home?'.

"I telephoned my husband to come and get me. I just walked out of the ward with a cannula still in my arm."

Mrs Courtney left the hospital and went back to her GP to have the cannula removed.

She said: "It was one thing after another. It was awful. I felt I was being pushed from pillar to post.

"The nurse who shouted at me was the straw that broke the camel's back. People are in hospital because they are ill. If I did not need this nurse's help I would not have asked her.

"It was absolute chaos at the hospital. The NHS used to be the pride of this country so what's the problem now?"

Mrs Courtney has made an official complaint to United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The trust said it was unable to discuss individual cases, but welcomed the opportunity to speak to patients and families about their concerns.

A spokesperson added: "Like many areas, our emergency departments remain extremely busy and we are sorry about any delay patients may experience.

"Our teams continue to do everything they can to care for patients, prioritising by clinical need."

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