The heartbroken family of an elderly man who died after waiting 17 hours for a bed on a hospital ward say he would have still been alive today if the NHS was not suffering such severe delays. Gurmukh Banwait, 75, was so shocked at what he experienced at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester when he was taken there with breathing difficulties that he had planned to speak up about it once he was home - but he passed away in hospital.
Mr Banwait's devastated family said they could not believe how badly the elderly father had declined while in hospital and wish he had never been admitted in the first place. The pensioner, from Loughborough, had reportedly started suffering from breathing problems on Boxing Day last year and was taken to hospital at around 6am on December 28 - but he died there the next day.
His daughter Balbinder Kaur said her father had to wait around 17 hours in a "cold waiting room" before he was finally admitted to a ward, LeicestershireLive reports. But Mr Banwait had fallen ill at a time of extreme pressure on the NHS, which led to the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust declaring a critical incident on December 30 - the day after he passed away.
There have been record-breaking numbers of people using A&E services in hospitals across Leicester - with nearly 1,000 patients seen in just one day in December.
Balbinder said she knew there were major issues within the NHS across the country because she had seen it on the news, but she said it is only when you're in the situation yourself do you realise just how bad it really is. She said the whole experience had left her family angry and wishing they had never gone to hospital in the first place.
She said: “I feel really angry. I just can’t believe that it’s actually happened. From beginning to end it was just horrible.”
She added that there had also been delays with the ambulance service. When they finally arrived at Glenfield Hospital, they were met with the dire situation the staff were facing.
The 51-year-old said her father was becoming more anxious and unwell as the hours passed but they waited patiently, despite an urge to raise concerns. The pair watched other patients, who they said also appeared to be struggling to endure the long wait and said they were not offered any food or drink.
“[My dad] told me while we were in the hospital, ‘I can’t believe we’re in the UK and I’m sitting here, waiting for a bed for this long’. He actually said that when we got out of there, he wanted to speak up on the issue,” Balbinder said.
She added: “My dad is gone now and there’s nothing I can do about that but the government needs to understand that this is not right.”
He was admitted to ward 20 on Thursday, December 29, at around midnight and his family spoke to him later that day, at around 11am. Mr Banwait told them he was still struggling to breathe and had some pain in his legs, but he raised no further concerns. An hour later a nurse informed family members that Mr Banwait was “doing well” apart from low oxygen saturation but said “oxygen machines were in short supply”, according to Balbinder.
But by 3pm, when Balbinder’s brother went to visit their father in the hospital, Mr Banwait appeared “delirious” and had significantly deteriorated. Having not been informed of his father's updated condition, Balbinder’s sibling believed Mr Banwait was not being given the care and attention he needed.
'My biggest regret is that we went in the first place'
He prompted the rest of the family to attend, around an hour later, as Mr Banwait’s condition worsened and Mr Banwait sadly died in hospital that afternoon. Balbinder said the family were informed he had died of major organ failure among other ailments but feel they have been left with unanswered questions.
Balbinder said: “If he got the care he needed straight away then I could accept what has happened but I can’t say that. When he went in, we were told he wasn’t critical, so how did he deteriorate so quickly?
“He has been failed. But I feel guilty because he went to the hospital at the wrong time. He said when we got there that he just wanted to go home but he was feeling so unwell and if we left it would be considered a self-discharge and we’d have to go through the whole process again.
“He’d even said to me that he was scared to go because once you go, you don’t come back alive. That’s my biggest regret, that we went in the first place because he might still be here.
“You just don’t know when you will be seen to, that’s the situation at the moment.”
Balbinder has raised a complaint with Leicester Hospitals, alleging her father did not receive the care he should have. LeicestershireLive understands that during the period of extreme pressure, the Trust took measures to ensure patient care was prioritised and limited updates to family members to changes in circumstances. Patients with the most urgent clinical needs were seen first.
Andrew Furlong, medical director at Leicester’s Hospitals said: “We apologise to the family of Mr Banwait for the delays to care they experienced and offer our condolences at this difficult time.
“In the days between Christmas and New Year, our whole health and care system was exceptionally pressured. In our hospitals, all efforts were made to ensure patients with the most urgent clinical needs were seen first. There are robust processes in place for recording patient harm and clinical teams are encouraged to record if they believe that a delay or other situation has contributed to harm.
“We are committed to learning from the feedback of families and patients, and encourage anyone with a complaint to make contact with our PILS team so that we can investigate further.”
Susannah Ashton, Divisional Director for Leicestershire at East Midlands Ambulance Service, said: “Exceptional pressure across the NHS and social care system continues to have the biggest impact on our ability to quickly get to patients waiting in the community. Each part of the system is working hard to do everything possible to reduce the delays experienced by patients.
“We are committed to continue to work with partners to respond to the pressure and deliver the most timely and appropriate response to the patient. We offer our condolences to the family and would like to speak with them about their experience and to address their concerns.”
