A mum-of-five has slammed her treatment after waiting almost two days on the floor of an accident and emergency (A&E) waiting room. Dawn Mullholland, 54, described the NHS as 'completely broken' following her ordeal.
She has submitted a formal complaint to the Liverpool University Hospital NHS Trust after her 'horrific' experience at Aintree Hospital, where she says she was left in 'incredible pain' for days. The mum-of-five said while the majority of staff were doing their best, she believes the system is so overloaded and desperate it has become dangerous.
Dawn, who owns a tattoo business in Liverpool, went to the Aintree Hospital A&E department just after 5pm on Sunday, June 18 with a high temperature, acute pain in her kidney area and vomiting. She was promptly triaged, had an x-ray and bloods taken, the LiverpoolEcho reports.
By 9.30pm she was told she had a suspected kidney stone, kidney infection and possible sepsis, which can potentially be fatal. Speaking about the situation in the emergency department, Dawn said: "It was a Sunday evening and the waiting room was chaotic. There were people fighting, I felt really vulnerable and unsafe. There was very little security."
Dawn would go on to spend a remarkable 42 hours in that waiting room and was forced to sit on the floor in 'incredible pain', with no trolleys available.
She said: "For the duration of my 42 hour stay in the Emergency Department my clinical observations were only done twice, once in triage and once when I was having my bloods taken around two hours later. I had no other clinical observations until I was taken to the ward 42 hours later.
"I had suspected sepsis, so I should have been on antibiotics within and hour, but I didn't get them for five hours.
"I was left to sit for almost two days In an Emergency Department that was overflowing and dangerous. I was sat in excruciating pain on hard chairs and on numerous occasions on the floor. Other patients were also sat on the floor. After 36 hours I was given a trolley to sleep on with the nurse admitting that 36 hours in these conditions and in pain is ridiculous."
Eventually, Dawn was admitted to a ward where she remained for 10 days. She is now recovering at home but says she has been scarred by her experience in hospital and deeply concerned about the state of the NHS.
The 54-year-old said: "It's horrible that people are sat on the floor in incredible pain and not getting the treatment they need. The majority of staff are trying their very best but their hands are tied. They are working under the shocking conditions that they are working in, however the system is broken and desperately needs fixing."
"I spoke to so many nurses who were all really struggling. They actually told me to make a complaint because they think that's the only way things might change."
"The whole system is just completely broken. I wouldn't want to go back into that hospital to be honest."
In January of this year Aintree's emergency department was handed a rating of inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), who inspected the service last October. The CQC found that patients were 'at risk of harm' in the overwhelmed department, which had exceeded its maximum capacity during the inspection.
Dawn said: "That inadequate rating was released in January of this year. I would like to know what plans have been put in place to turn things around and improve things for patients. I know how difficult things are but what is the trust doing to make things better?"
Dr Peter Turkington, executive managing director of Aintree University Hospital, said: “I’d like to apologise to Dawn for her experience at our hospital and we are in touch to address her concerns directly.
"Staff in our A&E department are working incredibly hard to deliver safe care in what remain very challenging circumstances, with high demand and very sick patients, and we will learn from Dawn’s experience to ensure we identify and implement areas for improvement.”
