A woman has been left horrified after seeing the state of Bolton Royal Hospital when her mum was taken in with pneumonia.
Resident Rachel said that her mum was taken to the hospital on the morning of, Monday, December 2 with pneumonia and was left waiting in the A&E department for close to 48 hours due to how busy it was.
She said that when she arrived, there were lines of people in makeshift beds in the corridors.
Rachel said: “I thought my dad was exaggerating when he was telling me that there were people queued up in the corridors for beds, but when I arrived at A&E, no one questioned me to ask me where I was going. I just walked through.
“I was at a corridor and either side there were people in rows against the wall in makeshift beds.
“It looked like something out of a film.
“There must have been around 15 to 20 at that point when I was walking through, and I thought this is horrendous.”
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Rachel said she asked a doctor about the fact people were left in the corridors and his reaction was: “Liverpool is worse, we’ve been promised from Keir Starmer that from April things will change.”
Rachel’s mum eventually got moved into a temporary room and while they were in there, Rachel’s young son reportedly picked up bits of plastic which looked like the end of syringes and bits of equipment off the floor.
Bits of plastic were also found in the sink too, and she had to keep taking them from her son.
She said that this was “a massive health risk” and was just shocked at the state of the room.
After she found her mum in the temporary room, she told her that she had not been offered a drink by any member of staff so when her dad visited, she had to ask him to get her a drink or something to eat.
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Problems kept continuing, with her mum being discharged on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 4 with there being no discussion of aftercare being had.
Rachel said: “My mum's immobile so we had to get her up, I asked for a wheelchair, and they said we’ve not got any.
“The nurse just said we’d have to find one ourselves as we couldn’t get mum to the car.
“As we were walking out one came available, but the nurse wasn’t bothered.
“My mum was completely immobile and had pneumonia.
“My mum shouldn’t have been discharged. I’ve contacted social services and she’s been put on urgent care so people can come and assess her for what she needs, but this should have been done before she left hospital.”
Rachel added that she understands this is a busy time of year but that doesn’t excuse doctors and nurses trying to rush people out of beds and not providing aftercare.
She added: “The whole treatment and attitude from people, it wasn’t good at all.”
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In response, Dr Francis Andrews, medical director at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said: “During the cold winter months we expect to see a rise in demand for our emergency department, and unfortunately this could mean people face a longer wait than we would like.
“We strive to constantly keep our clinical areas clean, despite very high demand, and we are sorry that our usual high standards were not met on this occasion.
“We’re always looking at how best to manage demand, including opening our new discharge unit which aims to reduce delays for people to leave hospital and free up bed space, introducing a proactive approach to supporting patients back to the place they call home, and a new triage initiative to get people where they need to be in hospital quickly and safely.
“To help us, we also ask that people only attend the emergency department for life or limb-threatening emergencies so that we’re able to treat those who most urgently need our help.
“For minor illnesses and injuries people can book an appointment for our urgent treatment centre by calling 111, or they may be able to find the help they need through their GP or local pharmacy.”
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