An old man in hospital had received no nursing care for a week. He wasn’t fed for three days. He asked a nurse if he could be bathed. She brought him a damp paper towel and told him to do it himself.
A 92-year-old former ward sister was told that she had terminal liver failure. The doctor had apparently conducted an examination via a video link. A face to face visit was refused. Taken by a relative to the local A&E department, the woman was diagnosed with a simple infection – treated with antibiotics. Three days later she made a full recovery. (There had been a 12 hour wait on a ward trolley.)
A patient was admitted to hospital as an emergency had to wait 49 hours before a bed could be found for him.
A patient with a broken arm, in great pain, was told by an ambulance service that her condition wasn’t life-threatening and that the wait would be eight hours.
An 89-year-old woman waited six hours for an ambulance and died.