Tears of elderly patient who was moved from hospital ward into an office due to no room
AN elderly patient had her hospital bed moved to an office because there was no room on a ward.
Great-grandmother Arlene Meekins – who was put in the office and surrounded by filing cabinets on her 77th birthday – wept while staff made calls and did paperwork beside her.
Her ordeal at the flagship Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital happened on Tuesday when ambulances had earlier queued for up to four hours to unload patients due to wards being packed to capacity.
Members of Mrs Meekins’s family complained when they arrived and staff then quickly found space on a normal ward.
Hospital bosses apologised to Mrs Meekins and her family for the three-and-a-half hours which she had spent in the office after she was admitted to hospital.
The pensioner’s daughter-in-law Shelley Meekins, 41, said: “I kicked up a stink when I arrived. I felt it was disgusting.
“The staff had to lean across her to make a cup of coffee and the guy in the office was making calls to other patients.
“She felt degraded and when I got there, she did cry as there was no dignity for her. She is a strong woman and yet she burst into tears.”
A hospital spokeswoman said: “We have already apologised in person to the patient and her family.
“At the time the trust was experiencing considerable bed pressure with many patients needing urgent admission to hospital.”
