An 80-year-old former-NHS employee was left waiting 24 hours overnight in A&E, leaving her ‘tired, distressed and angry’.
Edna Butler, who lives in Boston, Lincolnshire, had retired from the NHS around 20 years ago.
Her career involved helping in her town’s A&E, LincolnshireLive reported.
The 80-year-old experienced stroke-like symptoms early Saturday morning and was taken to Boston’s Pilgrim Hosptal.
Her son, Andrew Butler, said: "She had a CT scan at Pilgrim and then at around 2pm, they said that she was going to be transferred to the A&E at Lincoln.
"By this point, she'd already been waiting at Boston between 7am and 2pm but she then arrived in Lincoln at 3pm and whilst she was at Lincoln she had a further CT scan as well as two MRI scans.
"As you can imagine, I felt more relaxed when I heard that she'd got to Lincoln A&E because I thought that they'd be keeping her comfortable by finding her a ward and a bed."
However, what followed was far from that.
Edna spent the next 24 hours stuck in the waiting room at the hospital.
She was not properly admitted, and forced to sit in a waiting room chair overnight.
The next day Andrew was phoned to say she was being discharged.
The 57-year-old, who also lives in Boston, said: "I was so angry and I can't believe they thought it appropriate that a woman of that age should be sat in a waiting room chair for 24 hours.
"It might be suitable for someone of my age, but this is a woman who has had both of her knees replaced, her elbow replaced and who is awaiting a hip replacement, so she would have been incredibly uncomfortable.
"She barely slept overnight and when I picked her up she was distressed, angry and brutally tired."
Andrew formally complained about what happened to his mother to the United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust which runs the hospital.
In his complaint, Andrew described the treatment of his mother as "barbaric" and says that "her only respite from sitting was her journey by ambulance to Lincoln's A&E."
He also says that he intends to send a letter of complaint about the situation to his local MP, Matt Warman.
Andrew said: "The staff were all very apologetic, but to me those apologies are just hollow words.
"I totally understand the pressures that the NHS is under at the moment and I do work in the NHS myself, but my mum's experience has been shambolic.
"I wouldn't expect that she'd get any special treatment, but the fact that she herself worked in the NHS for about 40 years and was a sister at Boston's A&E makes it even worse.
"I took her home on Sunday and she had a quick shower and went straight to bed because she was just absolutely exhausted by the experience."
Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Nursing, Dr Karen Dunderdale said: “Unfortunately we are unable to comment on individual cases, however, we have been contacted by the patient’s family and will be liaising with them directly.”
The muscle weakness that Edna experienced in her face is categorised by the NHS as a common stroke symptom, and Andrew says that services for the treatment of this condition are not what they once were at Boston.
He said: "The obvious backstory here is that stroke services have been taken away from Boston because of funding cuts and everything is going to Lincoln.
"But the question is whether Lincoln can cope with the extra demand that's going to cause and the idea that someone having a stroke in Skegness would have to travel as far as Lincoln is ridiculous."
The proposal to establish a "centre of excellence" for stroke services at Lincoln County Hospital, whilst taking away the services at Boston, was the subject of a recent consultation.
Lincolnshire's Clinical Commissioning Group, which ran the consultation, says that it expects to make a decision on the matter by the end of March.
