A great-grandfather was left gasping for breath and crying out in pain as he was forced to spend 12 hours sleeping on a hospital floor.
Martin Wakely, who was later diagnosed with pneumonia, was rushed to Medway Maritime Hospital, in Kent, in an ambulance after his wife Tracy, 63, became concerned he was struggling to breathe.
The 75-year-old resorted to sleeping on top of his dressing gown on the hospital floor as he has Multiple Sclerosis (ME), which means he is unable to sit up for long periods.
The former gun dog trainer was left crying due to the pain in his back from being unable to lie down. He was later diagnosed with pneumonia and a trolley was provided, albeit out in the corridor with no privacy.
Furious by the way he was treated, Mr Wakely eventually discharged himself after spending 51 hours in hospital altogether. His wife likened the desperate ordeal to being in a ‘hospital in a third-world country’.
Bosses at Medway NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, have apologised but said it was continuing to see a high number of patients who needed admitting for treatment.
Ms Wakely, who has been married to her husband for 23 years, compared the level of care to that of a ‘third-world’ country.
The former council property inspector, from Bobbing, Kent, said: ‘It was heart-breaking seeing someone I love put through it.
‘It’s disgusting that he has worked all his life, paid all his taxes, done everything right and he ends up on the floor with the rubbish.
‘I’ve got nothing against the people who were there because they can only work with what they’ve got but the whole thing is stretched too far.
‘I knew the NHS was in a state but until you’re actually in that situation or you’re there in amongst it you don’t realise how bad it is.
‘It’s like what you imagine a hospital in a third-world country would be like. It is disgusting.’
Ms Wakely called an ambulance on October 27 at 11am as Martin had been struggling to breathe and they arrived at the Medway Maritime Hospital at midday.
Mr Wakely, who is also a grandfather-of-four, is cared for by his wife at home and is virtually bedbound because of his ME which Ms Wakely said she made the paramedics aware of.
Despite her plea, they were sent to the A&E waiting room which had nothing but plastic chairs which Mr Wakely struggled to sit on.
He tried laying down across the chairs when his back pain became too much but Ms Wakely said a nurse told her husband that he would have to sit up as the seats were needed.
Ms Wakely added that at 6pm she asked again how much longer it would be before blood test results came back but was told he had been wrongfully discharged.
He was then seen by a doctor who prescribed antibiotics as he had pneumonia in one of his lungs, They also put him on a nebuliser to help him breathe as he sat inside a cubical.
However, he needed an X-ray so they both returned to the A&E waiting room and Ms Wakely again asked for a trolley around 8.30pm.
She said: ‘He was in so much back pain that he was crying.
‘But we were told to be patient and wait for one to become available.
‘Other patients could see he was in pain and offered their seats so he could lay down, and coats for comfort, and showed a sense of camaraderie.
‘Around 11.30pm he could not stand the pain and opted for the floor so I took him to a quiet place outside X-ray and laid his dressing gown down to make him comfortable.
‘Half-an-hour later the nurse I had been asking for a trolley came and said she now had one.
‘My husband struggled to get up and I struggled to pick him up off the floor.
‘I wheeled him to the supposed trolley but a patient was still on it.’
At 12.30am, Mr Wakely finally received a bed in the majors’ department but was still in a corridor with no privacy.
At 11am on Tuesday, October 29 – almost 48 hours after he arrived at the hospital – he told his wife he wanted to go home.
Nurses said they needed the blood results before he could leave although that would be against their advice – but by 3pm Mr Wakely was ‘fuming’ and discharged himself.
Ms Wakely said: ‘They said ‘you’ll be back in a couple of days’ but Martin said ‘I won’t, I’ll be dead first’.
‘There was no privacy, you can’t wash properly or even get changed – you’re in a corridor.
‘It was hard for Martin to sleep as there were people constantly passing you. There were lights on and it was very noisy.
‘People were asking to have their cannulas taken out as they couldn’t stand it anymore.
‘There was a man there whose head was bleeding and God knows how long he was there but he was there long before us.
‘A lady was sitting in front of us who had been there 11 hours longer than us and she didn’t even have a bed but was on a trolley.’
Ms Wakely says she will be lodging a formal complaint with Medway Maritime Hospital but both she and her husband have been ‘totally exhausted’ by the experience so have yet to do so.
Sarah Vaux, interim chief nursing officer for Medway NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘We are extremely sorry for Mr Wakely’s experience and for the distress caused to him and his family.
‘As soon as staff were aware Mr Wakely was lying on the floor he was moved on to a trolley for his comfort.
‘Our hospital is very busy as we continue to see a high number of patients in our Emergency Department who need admitting for treatment.
‘We are sorry that this means some patients wait longer than we would like and that at times patients may have to be moved to an alternative and safe location where we have a range of measures in place to support them.
‘Our staff are working tirelessly to provide the best possible care for patients 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.’