Councillor slams state of NHS after waiting to be seen in A&E for two days after collapse

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

A councillor who collapsed in agony with back pain and spent two days in A&E before he was finally admitted to a ward, has slammed the “dire state” of the NHS in Wales.

Tremeirchion councillor Chris Evans was at home in Rhuallt, Denbighshire when collapsed at home last month with debilitating back pain.

Cllr Evans who has compressed discs was unable to move from the kitchen floor so his wife Susan called for an ambulance. After a six-hour wait he was taken to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, Bodelwyddan, where he says he waited three to four hours, on Saturday, 27 September, before he was finally admitted into the hospital’s emergency department which was only the end of the beginning of his marathon wait.

Ordeal

He has spoken out about his ordeal in a bid to raise awareness of the “dire state” of the health service in north Wales.

He said he’d been “ill for six-odd months with pain down the bottom of my back” and had been taking painkillers and was seeing a chiropractor, prior to his collapse in front of his children, Sam, eight, and Evie, 10.

After the ambulance was called he “rang a neighbour to help pick me up off the floor, but I couldn’t move”. He added: “It was shooting pain, and once I was on the floor, I couldn’t pick myself up.

My bottom half was welded to the floor. I was paralysed. It was the worst pain I’ve ever had. It was like somebody putting a hot poker into my leg and back – it was 11 out of 10 pain”.

10-hour wait

After his 10-hour wait to get into A&E, he had to endure two days being treated in a side-room and a corridor where he had to urinate into a bottle, hidden only by a sheet.

He explained: “I felt terrified. I was away from my family. I was upset that my two little kids had seen me and heard me in such pain. I was calling out in pain for my mum who died two years ago because I was in such agony.

“This is what my residents in my ward come to me about, telling me they’ve been in A&E for 10 hours or 30 hours and were not getting the treatment. All sorts was going on in there. I couldn’t sleep. My neighbour had stayed with me because my partner was with the children. I was worried it was something really serious. I was worried I’d be paralysed.”

He added: “I couldn’t go to the toilet. I had to pee in a bottle (in a corridor) with a sheet round me as they didn’t have enough screens, which I found degrading.” After two days in A&E, Chris was finally moved to a ward where he spent two weeks in care.

Not fit for purpose

Now Chris wants action to fix the NHS in Wales: “The NHS is broken. It is not fit for purpose. We are letting the community of Denbighshire, of north Wales, down.

“The staff are so overrun, to try and move people to beds. It’s is not being managed right. That is not the staff’s fault. It’s the chief executives (of the NHS) and Denbighshire County Council.

“I’ve sent a letter to Cllr Elen Heaton, who is the cabinet member working with Betsi, to ask what are we doing? We need more hospitals. We’ve got bed blocking from people who could be cared for in the community. Betsi have taken 60 overseas nurses, and now the student nurses who are trained haven’t got placements. Why is that happening?

“We’ve got nurses on band-four wages doing band-six jobs. They don’t have overtime. They never go home on time. They are going way above what they should be doing. Morale is very low in the hospital. It is only the camaraderie of the nurses and health care workers keeping it together.

“It is the fault of management. The hospital is not right. It is not the ambulances. It is not the nurses or the health care workers or the cleaners or the porters. It is the management of the place.

“What are Denbighshire County Council, the cabinet, doing to make it better? People are dying. I saw a fella in his nineties pass away. The nurses and health care workers were really fond of him, and he passed away. The nurses and health carers still had to carry on. The staff are doing 110% of what they should be doing.”

‘Disgusting’

He added: “It is disgusting how the residents of North Wales are getting treated, but it is also disgusting how the nursing staff are being treated.”

Chris is now recovering at home on anti-inflammatory drugs and strong pain killers after an MRI scan helped doctors find a trapped nerve in his back.

Liam Williams, executive director of quality and nursing at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “We would like to extend our sincere apologies to Cllr Evans for what we recognise would have been a painful and distressing wait for an ambulance. The 999 calls we receive are assessed in order of clinical priority, and we aim to respond as soon as possible; however, we prioritise based on those patients who require hospitalisation to receive lifesaving interventions first.

“Unfortunately, the wait Cllr Evans experienced is a reflection of the sustained and well-documented pressures across the entire emergency healthcare pathway. This is not the service we aspire to provide to our patients, and we are working hard with Welsh Government and Local Health Board colleagues to implement meaningful change.”

He added: “We would invite Cllr Evans or a representative to contact us directly so that we can better understand their concerns and look into what happened.”

Apology

Imran Devji, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s interim chief operating officer, said: “I would like to apologise for Cllr Evans’ experience, as I do for all those who suffer long waits for treatment. As he has kindly acknowledged, our staff are working hard to deliver the best care for our patients, despite the many pressures on the health system which manifest in long waits in our Emergency Departments.

“The Health Board has already contacted Cllr Evans, and we will be inviting him to speak to us further so we can understand what happened during his treatment journey. We will also be able to explain the work we are doing both within the hospital and, more importantly, in the wider community with our local authority partners, to ensure patients have minimal delays for any discharge support.

“Hospital beds released by this work will be used for patients waiting to be admitted from the Emergency Department.

“Making sure they are nearer their homes with the right kind of packages of support is where we see the best care outcomes for people in North Wales. By looking after more people in their communities with appropriate support, we will release hospital beds so patients who need to be admitted can move through ED and into wards at a faster rate.”

He added: “This is a challenge all health boards face, and we are 100% focused on this as part of our present work and future planning.”

The local democracy reporting service approached Denbighshire County Council and the Welsh Government for comment.

NHS, as Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board continues to be managed in special measures.