Father spends night in hospital cupboard after NHS faces bed shortage crisis
A PATIENT recovering from an operation was put in a hospital cupboard because of a bed shortage.
Paul Ross-Bowker, 35, was given a brass bell to call for help and his drip for antibiotics and morphine was hung from a light fitting above his bed.
The father of two was recovering from an operation to remove his appendix when he was placed in the makeshift ward.
His mother Pauline described the conditions as something from the “dark ages”. She said: “I was half-expecting to see Florence Nightingale walking down the corridor.”
Gwynedd hospital in Bangor, run by the Welsh NHS, has apologised to Mr Ross?Bowker and a local politician has vowed to highlight the “incredible” case in the Welsh parliament.
Computer programmer Paul, of Brynsiencyn, Anglesey, was first disturbed when he was woken after his operation at 3am by staff who moved him as someone else needed his space on the ward. He was later wheeled back but he was woken again at midnight the following day, then taken to the storage room.
Shocked Pauline said: “It was a converted cupboard. How clean would this room have been? He had just had surgery.”
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board said it happened only because of “extreme” circumstances.
