An elderly woman spent 18 “hellish” hours in a hospital corridor as she waited for medical attention and a bed, her daughter said. A CT scan subsequently revealed she had broken her neck in two places – plus a third neck fracture suffered when she was aged 14 but never diagnosed.
Despite being in considerable pain, the 82-year-old was allegedly given just two Co-codamol tablets in the 11 hours before being sent for scans. Her daughter, Michele Bradford, said Wrexham Maelor Hospital resembled a “war zone” while they waited for treatment.
She claimed patients were abandoned on trolleys and stretchers, some crying out in pain or desperate to go to the toilet. “As Mum was lying on her back, forced to stare at the ceiling, she couldn’t see any of this,” said Michelle, from Holyhead, Anglesey. “But she could hear all the shouting and wailing.”
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Betsi Cadwaladr, the North Wales health board, has apologised to the patient and her daughter. Deputy medical director Dr Jim McGuigan said patients were always treated in order of clinical need. This can mean long waits if more critical cases arrive in Emergency Departments (ED) at the same time.
Yvonne Jones, from Pantymwyn near Mold, Flintshire, was taken to Wrexham Maelor on Wednesday, June 5. Michele had rung her and learned she had fallen in the garden the previous day. “She’d hit her head and had dragged herself back to the house after recovering consciousness,” said Michele. “I was very concerned but she’s very stoic and she assured me she was alright.
“However her voice sounded different and I couldn’t settle – it didn’t feel right. So I drove to her house anyway. I found her sat in a chair, stiff as a board.”
Before setting off for the hospital, Michele went online to check Betsi’s estimated waiting time at Wrexham Maleor’s A&E. As it indicated two hours 35 minutes, she was hopeful of prompt treatment. “When we arrived at 9.30pm, it was armageddon in there,” she said. “It was horrific – more than 100 people were waiting in A&E.” The North Wales Live Whatsapp community for top stories and breaking news is live now – here’s how to sign up
After a 90-minute wait, Mrs Jones was triaged. “The nurse was lovely – she said Mum’s neck needed to be stablised straight away,” said Michele. “So she was put on a trolley and wheeled to the A&E corridor. But her neck wasn’t stabilised.”
At 11.25pm, they said they were told they faced a nine-hour wait to see a doctor. They weren’t alone – another elderly lady with broken ribs was on a stretcher nearby, Michele said. Others joined them during the night, she said.
“Mum was in agony,” said Michele. “Any slight movement caused her significant pain. I asked three times if pain relief was available, and eventually Mum was given two Co-codomol. She was desperate to go to the toilet, worried she would wet herself, but there was no help.
“A homeless woman on a drip was shouting to go to the loo. All the while there was a constant stream of people going past in the narrow corridor.
“It was hell on earth. What got me was seeing five police officers bringing in a young man with a cut head. As the officers were waited outside, he was treated while an 82-year-old woman lay in a corridor with a broken neck.
“A woman caring for her mother took off her coat and revealed herself as a nurse. She told us the standard of care was totally unacceptable and that my mother was being neglected.”
Michele said Mrs Jones was seen by a medical professional shortly before 9am on Thursday, June 6. She quickly arranged a CT scan. By 11.30am Mrs Jones learned she’d broken her neck in two places, Michele said.
“They also found an old neck fracture,” said Michele. “Mum realised it was from a swimming incident when she was 14 when she dived into a pool. It had never been diagnosed and she had never complained, which is typical of that generation.”
Mrs Jones finally received morphine and was returned to the corridor, this time with a neck brace, Michele said. Inquiries were made for a transfer to the trauma unit at Royal Stoke Hospital, which later requested a more detailed MRI scan. Exhausted after 23 hours without sleep, Michele said she grabbed an hour’s kip in her car outside the hospital. Already, she’d taken to social media to share her disgust at the “total failure of basic medical care”.
It prompted scores of people to share their own horror stories – long waits for ambulances and hospital treatment, coupled with claims of incorrect diagnoses. Some people were worried for the hospital’s future prospects as swathes of new homes are built in the city without extra healthcare provision. Several locals told how they no longer go to the Maelor but to Chester, Deeside or even further afield.
A woman revealed she prefers going to Oswestry’s minor injuries unit or even the Alltwen out-of-hours unit in Porthmadog, Gwynedd. “Despite the travel time, there’s better care available sooner than the wait at Wrexham ED,” she said.
Many said staff were dedicated but overwhelmed. Despite this, several former patients couldn’t praise the Maelor highly enough. One woman, who had snapped her shin, was in plaster within two hours of arriving at the hospital. “I couldn’t fault the Maelor from casualty to orthopedics,” she said. “They were amazing.”
Prompt and good treatment is rarely recognised. But Michele was clear her mother’s care was neither. “I’d been advised to take Mum to Wilmslow instead and I bitterly regret going to the Maelor,” she said. “More than 19 hours after arriving at the hospital with a broken neck, she was finally moved from the corridor to a side room.
“At 3am she was transferred to a ward. It was full of dementia patients. As Dad died last year after a five-year battle with dementia, she found it hard to cope. Eventially she was moved to a non-dementia area of the ward.”
Mrs Jones wasn’t transferred to Stoke. On Monday afternoon, June 10, Michele said she was discharged and told to come back in three months – later cut to two weeks and two follow-ups after the family complained that was too long. Michele drove her home, a kindly neighbour having Hoovered the house, plumped her pillows and fed her cats.
The hospital’s occupational team had visited already, installing a bed frame so Mrs Jones could sit up in bed. A planned holiday in southern France, with Michele and her family, has been cancelled and an insurance claim submitted. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox
“I have bad memories of that hospital and I won’t go back there if I can help it,” said Michele. “The nurses were lovely but I’ve been badly affected by the treatment of my mother and other people there. I feel much more comfortable now she’s back home.”
What Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board said
Dr Jim McGuigan, Betsi’s deputy executive medical director, said: “We sincerely apologise for this patient’s experience and that of her daughter. I want to assure the public we treat patients in order of clinical need, not by order of how long they have been waiting. This means we treat the sickest at any given moment and we continually reassess clinical need as more patients arrive.”
He urged patients with concerns about their care to contact the health board’s Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). Feedback is vital for improving services, he said. PALS can be contacted on 03000 851234 or via email at [email protected].
Dr McGuigan added: “The delays within our EDs are symptomatic of two things, in the main. Firstly, we are seeing far more people arriving with higher acuity (severity), despite primary care seeing increasing numbers of patients. This means we are seeing more people with more serious conditions since the Covid pandemic.
“Secondly, we continue to have significant issues with safely discharging people who we consider to be medically fit to leave our hospitals. This means we often do not have enough free beds within the main hospital to allow us to move those patients who need one, out of ED. This adds to the pressure on ED staff and contributes to why you will often see patients waiting in corridors or cubicles at busy times.
“There are a number of complex factors which cause these delayed discharges. One of them is a lack of resource and capacity within the social care sector. We are continually looking at ways to help alleviate capacity issues, along with our local authority partners, the Welsh Ambulance Service Trust and the third sector, so we can reduce waiting times and free up ambulances to work within our communities.
“Primary care and the community nursing teams do vital work with local authorities and private care providers, so patients can leave hospital safely. Community teams also provide some of that interim care so that hospitals can discharge patients who are medically fit. We face complex issues in our hospitals and our communities and ED is a symptom of the pressures we face, not the cause.”
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Sarah Carter is a health and wellness expert residing in the UK. With a background in healthcare, she offers evidence-based advice on fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, promoting healthier living for readers.
