Man spends five days in chair at 'warzone' Welsh hospital

07 March 2024 , 12:08

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Morriston Hospital where Nicky Roberts was kept on a chair (Image: Media Wales John Myers)

A patient has spoken out in horror at his experience of spending five days in a chair at a "warzone hospital" in Wales.

Nicky Roberts, 42, went to Morriston Hospital, Swansea, on Saturday night with severe headaches and was told he had a potentially serious condition. He was told there were no beds and had to sleep on a chair next to A&E, the BBC reported. His horror experience comes less than a month after BBC journalist Jeremy Bowen said his 86-year-old mother waited 20 hours on a hard plastic chair in Cardiff's hospital.

Nicky said he was told he would have to stay in hospital as he had hypercalcaemia which can be life-threatening in some cases. Hypercalcemia is a condition in which the calcium level in your blood is above normal. He told the BBC: "When I came in on Saturday night I was told the wait was 13 hours but because I was quite unwell I got seen in about three hours. It was OK for the first six to eight hours, but by Sunday it was quite clear there was no plan about how they were going to see all these patients."

"Over the last few days, I've heard people describing it as being in a warzone here, with people on the floor, people needing treatment and not getting it. At one point there was about one nurse looking after about 20 patients. It's been really horrible to see and experience the situation the NHS is faced with."

Nicky said he had not been told what his treatment plan was and was worried about how long he would have to stay in the hospital as the staff did not have time to explain what was wrong. He slept in the same chair from Saturday to Tuesday and was moved to another "slightly comfier" chair on Tuesday night.

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In a statement on social media on Wednesday, the health board said Morriston Hospital was "under extreme pressure with high numbers of acutely unwell patients needing treatment and beds". It said: "As a result, we are at our highest level of escalation - a business continuity incident. Staff are working extremely hard. But waits are much longer than we would like, especially for those who attend our emergency department with less serious and non-life threatening illnesses or injuries."

A spokesperson told the BBC: "We do not want anyone waiting a long time for a bed. Here at Morriston Hospital, we have undertaken a significant amount of work around our front door, which is designed to offer the right care to the right patient in the right setting, enabling those who can do so safely to go home sooner and, for those who need one, to be admitted to a bed as soon as possible. But we are currently experiencing exceptional demand which means that, despite our best efforts, waits are much longer than we would like."

Rachel Hagan