Disabled man left waiting eight hours for hospital transport
James Deans of Great Gonerby.
A DISABLED man was left waiting for transport from Grantham Hospital for eight hours last Thursday.
James Deans, 65, of Covill Close, Great Gonerby, needed hospital treatment to fix a problem with his catheter.
He offered to use his mobility scooter to take himself to the hospital, a journey which takes 20 minutes, but district nurses advised that he go in an ambulance.
He said: “I was getting fed up so I agreed to go down by ambulance. If I had put my foot down, this wouldn’t have happened.”
The ambulance arrived at around 12pm. Mr Deans was put on a stretcher and taken to hospital.
Two hours later, a doctor in A&E fixed the catheter and Mr Deans was allowed to go home. But it was not until after 10pm that he arrived at his house - which is less than three miles away.
He said: “I found out that transport home had been booked between 2pm and 3pm by the staff at A&E. I expect to wait a couple of hours but when they said it could be a very long time I thought they were joking.”
Mr Deans was left on a bed in an A&E cubicle while he was waiting. He was not given food or a drink.
At 5pm the nurses contacted the transport company to find out if he was going to be collected. They were assured he was on the waiting list.
He said: “All this time I was in an A&E cubicle, so if they had an emergency goodness knows where I would have been put.”
At around 6pm he was moved to a ward where he asked the nurses again about the transport.
He said: “They said they didn’t really know but I wouldn’t be going home until about 11pm.”
By this stage, his legs were twitching uncontrollably because he was cold.
At 9.45pm the ambulance arrived and transported Mr Deans home. He said the ambulance staff told him there would have to be a carer at his home because they could not use the hoist to move him from the stretcher.
Mr Deans’ carers normally put him to bed at around 8.30pm and he takes his medication at 9pm but the carer waited to help him.
He said: “I was not very pleased at all about the transport. It was diabolical.
“If it’s me it’s ok, but I just worry about other vulnerable people in the same boat as me.”
Mr Deans rang NSL transport the next day but said they did not offer an apology. The company were not available for comment.
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Weather for Grantham
Sunday 19 May 2013
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