A concerned daughter has called for more support to help an under pressure health service after her terminally ill mum waited 28 hours for a bed in A&E.
Claire Murphy, from Cookstown, brought her mum Jennifer, 54, to Craigavon Hospital at around 1pm on Sunday, July 17, after she developed an eye infection and spent over a day on a plastic medical table while she waited for a bed to become available.
Jennifer has terminal blood cancer and due to her treatment she has a suppressed immune system.
Read more: Cookstown woman opens up on mother’s struggle with incurable blood cancer
Claire said that from the moment she arrived at A&E the staff were "heroic" and clearly under a lot of pressure as they went from patient to patient "with sweat dripping from them due to the heat" making sure that everyone was being cared for despite the lack of beds that were available.
She said: "My mum developed an eye infection on Sunday and I took her straight away to Craigavon Hospital A&E because due to her condition any infection can be dangerous.
"When we arrived you could tell that it was already under a lot of pressure and the doctors and nurses were running everywhere in order to see patients with the sweat dripping off them in the heat.
"We were quickly triaged and given a separate room in order to give mum a bit of extra protection. She was also quickly put on an antibiotic drip and taken for scans.
"However, during that time there were no beds available for her so she had to sit on a plastic medical table, which was not ideal for her at all, but it was all that they were able to do for her. This got worse as the time went on and in the end she spent around 28 hours waiting for a bed to become free at the Royal Victoria Hospital, although some of that was due to ambulances delays and pressures on that service.
"There were dozens of other patients who were in the same position and I heard at one point there were 70 people waiting for beds.
"Throughout all of this the doctors and nurses were heroic, constantly checking up on us and other patients to make sure that we were ok and they had such compassion for every single person. They kept coming to us an apologising for the lack of beds but none of this was their fault and they were doing their utmost for everyone."
Claire's mum eventually got a bed at the Royal Victoria Hospital after a 28 hour wait and said that pressures on the ambulance service had put a slight delay on this and she drove her mum to the hospital herself after getting permission from her doctor.
She said that when her mum saw the hospital bed she burst into tears with relief, although she fears it will be difficult to get her mum to ever return to A&E due to the ordeal she had gone through.
Claire said the experience showed the pressures that the health service is under and that she fears things could get worse in the winter months.
She said: "The NHS is in desperate need of more resources and support in order to help these brilliant doctors and nurses who are doing all they can to look after us. Craigavon A&E was almost like a field hospital on Sunday with how patients needed to be treated.
"I am not sure if the heat had an impact on there being such high numbers at the hospital, but if this is what things are like in the summer, I hate to think how hard it could get in the winter months.
"Something needs to be done urgently to help our health service and its staff because it is something we all rely on and many don't realise how vital it is until you need to use it."
A Southern Health and Social Care Trust spokesperson said: "Our hard-working staff continue to provide care and treatment to patients with emergency medical conditions attending our Emergency Departments. Staff are doing everything they can to make patients comfortable and treat everyone as safely and quickly as possible.
"Despite all of this, regrettably many patients are experiencing longer waits. We are facing ongoing challenges in admitting patients. Most of the long waits in the Emergency Department are due to patients waiting for a bed to become available following another patient’s discharge. This has a direct impact on the length of time new patients who arrive at the Department will have to wait to be seen.
"Our hospitals are working beyond capacity dealing with rising numbers of Covid patients and many ill patients waiting for hospital beds. Managing these pressures in a global pandemic is a huge ongoing challenge for our exhausted staff. Rising Covid-19 related staff absence and illness inevitably increases pressures on our services, which are already experiencing very high levels of demand.
"We constantly monitor ongoing pressures both in our hospital system and regionally to allow us to manage patients in our hospitals at all times. It is absolutely vital that patients and visitors help keep themselves and others safe by: wearing a mask, washing hands, getting vaccinated, staying apart and leaving the hospital immediately when medically fit for discharge.”
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