A pensioner was 'forced to wait 24 hours' in an A&E corridor after being taken to hospital with suspected sepsis, his family say.
Frances Duckett, 86, was 'freezing and delirious' and had 'only eaten Weetabix' after being taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital by paramedics last Tuesday, LancsLive reports.
Mr Duckett was accompanied by his daughter-in-law Jackie who claims they were told they should expect to wait for 8 to 12 hours in A&E.
She told LancsLive: "He had to wait in the corridor for 24 hours, he was freezing and he hadn't eaten, you just think what is going on?"
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Mr Duckett is diabetic and was said to have "only eaten Weetabix" at 12:30am on the night he spent waiting in A&E. It is claimed the family were not allowed to visit Mr Duckett and provide him with food.
Jackie described her father-in-law as "freezing", "hungry" and "delirious" while he waited in the corridor.
Jackie said: "Once an ambulance takes you to hospital, you should be their responsibility. Why would you have to wait so long? Sepsis is a killer. He could have been dead."
Sepsis is the body's extreme response to an infection. Infections that cause sepsis are considered life-threatening.
She said her father-in-law's experience was "horrendous" and claimed the hospital "didn't seem to care" about Mr Duckett.
"There's no way he will be going back there," she said, "He was taken to a ward where he didn't know anyone and he came home on Thursday where we will keep him warm and feed him."
"I appreciate times are hard but why admit people to hospital with wait times like that? They need to help people," Jackie said.
The demand of NHS services has been widely reported, with pressure building due to the influx of Covid patients during the pandemic, as well as a backlog of those needing non-Covid related care.
Chris Pearson, who is Chief Nurse at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said she was really sorry to hear about this case.
She added: “I’d like to apologise to both Mr Duckett and his family. It’s clear this experience was not in line with our usual high standards of safe, personal and effective care.
“The Trust has been experiencing very high demand for services and particularly in A&E and all urgent and emergency care settings. We always do everything we can to assess people and if needed admit them as quickly as possible. When it’s busy this can take longer than we’d like.
“If anyone feels our standards have dropped, we encourage them to let us know so that we can investigate and make improvements. I am pleased to hear that Mr Duckett continues to recover at home with his family.”
