A furious patient has spoken out after suffering a horrific 13 hour wait at A&E. Jenni Dunn, 35, says she was left heartbroken by her horrible hospital experience having watched elderly patients not getting seen to and patients being forced to sleep on the floor, reports Birmingham Live.
The 35-year-old visited a Birmingham hospital on November 2 after catching the flu, which left her struggling to breathe and "in absolute agony". She then received an initial assessment within 45 minutes and was told to wait to be seen by a doctor.
It took three hours for Jenni's name to get called and staff explained that she would be moved to another busy ward. After hours of back and forth at Heartlands Hospital, Jenni said she was left "ready to lose it".
Jenni then waited for more than 13 hours in pain without seeing a doctor. She said: "From observing the nurses around me I [could] see they [were] pushed [and] didn't know where to start."
"They are in way over their heads [and] this is not what they signed up for. Why are they looking after patients from A&E when there are super sick people in beds that need their attention?"
As the clock struck past midnight Jenni described seeing a 96-year-old patient "left in a wheelchair with extreme leg sores". She said it left her annoyed and contemplating: "What if that was my grandad?"
Jenni added: "Another elderly patient who [was] extremely exhausted attempted to lie on the floor to get some sleep. I approached the nurse and asked for a bed.
"I could see the tears in her eyes as she responded: ‘we have no beds at the moment'."
Jenni claimed she looked on "in disbelief" as "most people made make shift beds out of chairs". She was then finally seen by a doctor after 14 hours and was diagnosed with pleurisy, which is inflammation of the tissue between the lungs and ribcage.
She said: "It’s obvious this process has been devised by those at the top who have never experienced a customer journey whilst in pain. [They] are just interested in hiding the figures of A&E patients so they meet their targets.
"When will they realise that there [are] not enough staff across the hospital to deal with patients? How can they push that pressure onto ward staff?
"After 14 hours I did manage to see a doctor who could not apologise enough for the wait and treatment I had received. I could sense he too was ashamed of the position that those at the top had put him in.
"Luckily I was able to go home with the right medication and a diagnosis. For others, I am not sure how many more hours they were left in turmoil.
"I was utterly heartbroken by the tremendous pressure our NHS has been placed under. Our doctors and nurses are doing everything they can with the very little they have been given.
"I honestly wanted to cry for them." This wasn’t just a one off this is happening every day.
"Our NHS is broken."
Heartlands Hospital is run by University Hospitals Birmingham Trust, with Birmingham Live previously reporting that the organisation was running massively behind targets, with just 52 per cent of patients seen in four hours. The trust apologised to Jenni and said it would be in contact with her to delve deeper into the issues she experienced.
A spokesperson for University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are very sorry to hear about Mrs Dunn’s recent experience. Our Patient Advice and Liaison Service is in contact with Mrs Dunn, to look into her concerns in more detail.”
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