A man has spoken about his agonising 31 hour wait at a hospital after being he informed he could need emergency surgery. Muhammad Ehsan, 44, said a doctor told him to go to A&E following concerns that his colon might have burst.
The father-of-two waited more than thirty hours in Royal Oldham Hospital's A&E department in Manchester, where he was told there were no bed available as IT chaos struck the hospital. The Rochdale patient sat on a "hard, plastic" chair with a "sore stomach", only to be sent home with medication.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Muhammad said in the five days prior to his A&E trip, he was going to the toilet 10-15 times a day. He said: “My consultant advised me to go to hospital to be checked - which I said I didn’t particularly want to do.
"The consultant said he was really worried my colon might have burst and that I could need emergency surgery, which would only be possible if I was in a hospital bed. They then sent me a letter saying that they are not responsible if something goes badly wrong because I am not listening to their advice, so it felt like I had to go.”
When Muhammad, who has colitis - a condition where the colon and rectum can become inflamed, did go to the hospital's emergency department on May 23, he was told the waiting time would be five hours. But those five hours jumped to 11 hours when a doctor first came over to do some initial checks.
By the fourteenth hour into the 44-year-old's wait, Muhammad said doctors came to check him over again and said they wanted to admit him to hospital: “A doctor told me he’d try his best to get me a bed within a couple of hours, but no one got back to me until I’d been there about 26 hours.
“I had to sit on this hard, plastic chair while I had a really sore stomach and was deteriorating. No one offered me any food until a staff member brought me a sandwich around 23 hours into the wait. I couldn’t even eat it because it wasn’t suitable for vegetarians and wasn’t Halal. It was a nightmare on top of what I was already dealing with.”
The retail worker says for much of his wait he was torn between going home for a lie down to help with the pain, but didn't know if a bed could be just moments away: “I asked a staff member if I could go home and lie down, and then be called when there was a bed free."
He added: "But I was told that if I left the building, I’d have to be discharged and then start the process again. A doctor came back to check me and said again that there weren’t any beds, and that he didn’t know when there would be any available.”
Following the results of an X-ray and some blood tests, medics sent Muhammad home with more steroids - medication he is already taking - he claims. In total, Muhammad says he was waiting from 11.30am on May 23 until 6.30pm on May 24.
The consultant's letter about Muhammad's colitis 'flare', seen by the Manchester Evening News, reads: "[Muhammad's] current symptoms meet the criteria for acute severe colitis. I strongly advised Mr Ehsan that he should be admitted to hospital today for inpatient assessment, and likely for inpatient colectomy."
It comes as Royal Oldham Hospital is among four Greater Manchester Hospitals hit by IT chaos for the last two weeks. The hospital's Hospital’s A&E has been inundated with patients, with trust bosses urging people to stay away from the emergency department unless absolutely necessary.
Dr Chris Brookes, Deputy CEO and Chief Medical Officer for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust said: “We would again extend apologies to any patient and their family whose care or experience has fallen below our usual standards.
“Our staff are continuing to work incredibly hard to resolve the IT issues affecting our hospitals and community services in Oldham, Bury, Rochdale and at North Manchester General. Many staff are going above and beyond, and being incredibly patient, for which we are very grateful.
“We have made some good progress to fix some of the critical systems affected, and these systems are being released to colleagues when they have been tested and approved for use. This process will continue for the forthcoming days and weeks as we prioritise our key clinical systems to maintain patient safety."
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