A pregnant woman suffering chest pains claims she was forced to sit on the floor in the waiting area at Wales' newest A&E department due to excessive overcrowding. Jade Jefferies described the conditions at The Grange University Hospital as "third world" and said more staff are urgently needed.
The 30-year-old said she was told to visit the Cwmbran-based A&E on Thursday, November 10, by her consultant haematologist due to fears she may have a blood clot on her lung. When she arrived at about 2.30pm she said the waiting room was uncomfortably cramped and full of unwell people.
"There were people absolutely everywhere, some sat on the floor, some in wheelchairs. At one point there was a queue out the door of people trying to check in," she said. "In the time I was there I saw a lady become unconscious who had to be taken away, I saw a lady bleeding all over the floor, and another sat there being sick solidly for hours. It was all very scary. It was like a third-world country, that's how I would describe it."
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Jade, from Risca, near Newport, said she was very anxious in the waiting area as her heart rate and blood pressure were high. When more people came into the waiting area she claims she ended up sitting on the floor for more than an hour before a chair became available again. "There was another pregnant lady sat on the floor with me as well," she added.
After spending eight hours at the unit, she said she was told the wait could be as long as 17 hours so she made the decision to leave despite concerns for her health. "I'd had a blood clot on my lung before so I knew I wasn't going to die as long as I went home and gave myself an injection.
"The staff I spoke to were really, really nice and apologised for the wait, but even they admitted they didn't have enough people working there. Patients were also questioning why they closed the other two A&Es in the area for one 'super hospital' which doesn't even work. It's not fit for purpose."
Jade said an hour-and-a-half after she left the hospital, she was given a call by a doctor in A&E urging her to come back. However, they said she'd likely be waiting a further eight hours. "I'm now considering going to a different hospital, maybe in Bristol or the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff," she added.
A report by Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW), which made an unannounced visit to The Grange over three days in August, found that patients were not consistently receiving an acceptable standard of care at the emergency department. The purpose-built £350m hospital became the home of accident and emergency and intensive care for people living across Gwent and south Powys in November 2020.
The decision to close A&E departments at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport and Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny was controversial, but Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said at the time that the opening of The Grange would "transform how healthcare is delivered across Gwent".
According to latest Welsh Government figures, in August 7,530 people turned up at The Grange, making it the second busiest A&E in Wales. Nearly one in five patients waited longer than 12 hours during that month.
A spokesman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: "Like all hospitals across Wales and the UK, The Grange University Hospital continues to face extraordinary challenges due to staff shortages, increased demand and the after -effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on people's health.
"We are working hard to improve the experience of patients who visit the hospital. We recognise there are issues around the emergency department's waiting area, but we would like to reassure people that work is already underway to increase capacity in this area.
"We are working hard to improve patient flow and reduce waiting times. We have already introduced a closer partnership working initiative between Emergency Department staff and the Welsh Ambulance Service to improve ambulance handover times, as well as introduce a Same-Day Emergency Care Unit (SDEC) to offer eligible patients more timely care and to free up space in the Emergency Department
"We’re incredibly thankful to our fantastic staff, who are committed to providing the best possible care under such sustained pressure."
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