Heart attack survivor says £358 million critical care hospital ‘isn’t working’
Twm Owen, Local democracy reporter
A 61-year-old man had to wait five days for a hospital bed after suffering two heart attacks.
He is now pointing out that the £358 million critical care hospital which opened in 2020 “isn’t working”.
Phillip Churchill was rushed to The Grange Hospital, Cwmbran on August 8 after suffering a heart attack, he was then left on a trolly for four days.
He waited on a trolley from 7pm August 8, to 3am on August 12 before he was finally found a bed.
Arrival
When Mr Churchill arrived he said he was seen in a “decontamination” shower room as there was nowhere else for him to be assessed.
He said that while this was not ideal, it was a minor problem compared to not receiving treatment and being on a trolley for four days.
Medics told Mr Churchill they were unable to perform an angiogram, which would determine what treatment he needed, as he did not have a bed on the cardiology ward.
“Until the angiogram is done nothing can move forward,” said Mr Churchill: “I’ve raised it with the nurses every shift but all they’ve said is they are waiting for a bed.”
Even when he was given a bed on August 12, it still was not on the cardiology ward.
Scared
“The nursing staff are fantastic, they are absolutely brilliant and look after you to the very best of their abilities but the point I’m making is the place isn’t working,” said Mr Churchill
Mr Churchill, who had a quadruple heart by-pass operation in 2015, was given blood tests over the weekend, where the doctors discovered that he had suffered a second heart attack while on the trolly.
“I’m absolutely frightened to death as I’d not felt the heart attack on either Saturday or Sunday and worried I could just drop,” said Mr Churchill.
The hospital has been beset by problems around waiting times at its emergency department and capacity issues as it was only intended to treat patients transferred by ambulance, or sent by other medical professionals.
“I’m now bed blocking, had I been dealt with I maybe could have been home by now. I thought if I make a complaint it perhaps might not happen to someone else.”
The Aneurin Bevan University Health Board never imagined patients from the area would attend.
Response
A spokesperson for the Health Board said: “We’re very sorry that Mr Churchill is unhappy with his current care at the Grange University Hospital.
“We cannot discuss an individual’s care but can confirm that we have spoken with Mr Churchill and his medical team to discuss his concerns, and his treatment and investigations are being progressed.
“All of our teams are working to reduce the delays within the Emergency Department and Assessment Units to ensure patients are transferred to the appropriate areas as quickly as possible.”
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Perhaps the Baroness could include in her pilgrimage from St Davids every hospital in Cymru and be carried between them aboard a suitably upholstered wooden horse…
If you build it they will come. This hospital is dysfunctional because by accepting unselected emergencies it is blocked. Mr Churchill required angiograms as soon as possible in order to establish whether he required further intervention. As that was not done he is correct – the hospital failed him.
I have raised issues of this place previously after I took my wife there 18 months ago, no ambulances so had to ferry her on back seat of my car after a collapse at home, as advised by 111 service, it was 8 hours later that they located a trolley so she could be x rayed showing fractures of lower spine. It was 5 days in A&E before going to the gynaecological ward as it was only one with spare bed, moved later that day to Neville Hall in Abergavenny. I wrote to all AS laying out the treatment, staff… Read more »
Morgan and Gething both health ministers in charge of providing a very inadequate health service in Wales. Neither showed any competence or leadership. In my opinion Labour in Wales are dysfunctional. lacking in ideas, skill and competence. They have to go
People keep re-electing labour! Labour created this problem when they set about differentiating NHS Wales from NHS England because they could!
Okay there was obviously a problem at this time but we are rarely are told how many patients have gone through the hospital and for whom it worked well. News reports like failures – success stories are rarely told.
Unfortunately there are numerous instances of failure at Grange, from providing remains of deceased patients to the wrong families for funerals to patients suffering poor outcomes and sadly death after failure in care at Grange.
Having first hand experience of the Grange as made me take note of it’s failures.
Undoubtedly there are numerous patients who have experienced good outcomes but these are tainted by poor experience of others.
You have never been there . My father has been there three times . He’s waited 17 hours , 19 hours and 33 hours for treatment, he’s 91 . When he gets treatment it’s second to none I can not fault the staff , the ambulance crew doctors or nurses. But the whole process from start to finish is dehumanising, painful and heartbreaking for the people and family involved. There’s something seriously wrong in the system, no one is expecting miracles but things have got worse as time goes by . I can’t help thinking there is so much unnecessary… Read more »
Just study the reply from the Health Board carefully. Why they didn’t just reply “ hard luck maybe next time you might get a bed”. These health boards are laws to themselves and answer to no-one. It’s about time heads rolled as complaint after complaint gets a routine answer nameless and faceless ones at that . Nothing YES NOTHING is ever done . It’s not a nursing problem it’s a trust board policy these things continue to happen. FM Morgan remember her statement “I’m not responsible for waiting lists” will do nothing as she is in the hands of these… Read more »
Kick out the money wasting middle management Beaurecrats employed because lazy managers don’t want to work just pass the buck. Typical civil service if you have a degree we’ll employ you doesn’t matter you don’t know what your doing.
I have had wonderful care at Morriston Hospital but written twice about the lack of basic facilities like not enough cleaners.and toilet rolls on the floor.More importantly a nurse had to go to 5 other wards to find a heart monitor that was working and she could borrow.
I was concerned that the basic functioning of the hospital wasn’t working, and if it did it might help staff and patients. I had to go again last month and it didn’t appear to have got any better.