A great-grandfather of two who suffered from pneumonia resorted to sleeping on the hospital floor in his gown during a 12-hour wait for a trolley.
Martin Wakely, 75, was taken by ambulance to Medway Naval Hospital in Kent after his wife Tracy, 63, became concerned he was struggling to breathe.
Martin waited 12 hours for a wheelchair to be rolled out as he has multiple sclerosis (MS) and the condition means he is unable to sit for long periods.
The former gun dog trainer was left crying because of back pain from not being able to lie down – he was then diagnosed with pneumonia and given a wheelchair.
Martin says he was discharged after 51 hours in the hospital when the bed he was finally given was out in the hallway.
Bosses at Medway NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, have apologized but said it was still seeing a high number of patients needing to be admitted for treatment.
Tracy Wakely, who has been married to Martin for 23 years, compared the level of care her husband received to that of a ‘third world’ country.
The former council estates inspector, from Bobbing, Kent, said: “It was heartbreaking to see someone I love go through that.
“It’s disgusting that he worked all his life, paid all his taxes, did everything right and ends up on the floor with the garbage.
“I have nothing against the people who were there, because they can only work with what they have, but the whole thing has been too long.
“I knew the NHS was in a state, but until you’re actually in that situation or in the middle of it, you don’t realize how bad it is.
“It’s just like you imagine a hospital in a third world country would be. It’s disgusting.”
Tracy, 63, called an ambulance at 11am on October 27 as Martin struggled to breathe and they arrived at Medway Naval Hospital at midday.
Martin, who is also a grandfather of four, is cared for by his wife at home and is practically bedridden due to his MS, which Tracy said she made doctors aware of.
Despite her pleas, they were taken to the A&E waiting room, which had nothing but plastic chairs, which Martin tried to sit on.
He tried to lie down in the chair when his back pain became too much, but Tracy said a nurse told Martin he would have to sit down as the seats were needed.
Tracy added that at 6pm she asked again how long it would be before the blood test results came back, but was told it had been discharged in error.
Martin was seen by a doctor, who gave him antibiotics after he had pneumonia in one of his lungs and put him on a nebulizer to help him breathe while he sat inside a cube.
However, he needed an X-ray so they both went back to the A&E waiting room and Tracy asked for a trolley again at around 8.30pm.
She said: “He was in so much back pain he was crying.
“But we were told to be patient and wait for one to become available.
“The other patients could see he was in pain and offered their seats so he could lie down, and coats for comfort and showed a sense of camaraderie.
“At about 11.30pm he couldn’t take the pain and chose the floor so I took him to a quiet place outside the x-ray and put his gown on to make him comfortable.
“Half an hour later, the nurse I had asked for a trolley came and said she now had one.
“My husband tried to get up and I tried to pick him up from the floor.
“I wheeled it to the supposed cart, but a patient was still in it.”
At 12:30 a.m., Martin finally got a bed in the magisterial ward, but he was still in a corridor with no privacy.
At 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 29 – almost 48 hours after arriving at the hospital – he told Tracy he wanted to go home.
The nurses said they needed the blood results before he could be discharged, although it would be against their advice – but by 3pm Martin was ‘fuming’ and was discharged.
Tracy said: “They said ‘you’ll be back in a few days’ but Martin said ‘I won’t, I’ll be dead first’.
“There was no privacy, you can’t shower properly or even change – you’re in the corridor.
“It was difficult for Martin to sleep as there were people constantly passing by. There were lights on and it was very loud.
“People asked to have the cannulas removed because they couldn’t take it anymore.
“There was a man there who was bleeding from the head and God knows how long he was there, but he was there long before us.
“There was a lady sitting in front of us who had been there 11 hours longer than us and she didn’t even have a bed, she was in a wheelchair.”
Tracy says she will make a formal complaint to Medway Naval Hospital, but she and Martin are “absolutely gutted” by the experience so have yet to do so.
Sarah Vaux, interim chief nursing officer for Medway NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are very sorry for Mr Wakely’s experience and the distress caused to him and his family.
“As soon as the staff was aware Mr. Wakely was lying on the floor and moved to a wheelchair for his comfort.
“Our hospital is very busy as we continue to see a high number of patients in our Emergency Department who need admission for treatment.
“We regret that this means some patients are waiting longer than we would like and that sometimes patients may need to be moved to an alternative, safe location where we have a range of measures in place to support them.
“Our staff are working tirelessly to provide the best possible patient care at all times.
“We encourage patients who have any concerns about their care to contact us directly so that we can address and learn from the issues raised.”
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