NHS bed crisis ‘a disgrace’ Wes Streeting rages after photos emerge of terminally ill cancer patient forced to sleep on A&E floor
A shocking photo shows a terminally ill woman forced to sleep on the floor of a hospital due to a lack of beds.
Madeleine Butcher, 62, was taken to hospital by her husband John, 61, at around 3am on Sunday and was told she was probably suffering from sepsis.
Despite the prognosis, Madeleine – who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2022 – was told she could face a 36-hour wait in the emergency room.
She explained that it was uncomfortable to sit longer due to a rupture from her hysterectomy and the position of her tumor.
But despite her inquiry as to whether a bed, a cart or even a recliner was available, she was told that there was nothing available.
Madeleine Butcher, 62, who has terminal cancer, was forced to lie on the floor in the Emergency Room as she waited for treatment for a possible sepsis infection because she was too uncomfortable to sit in a chair in the Blackpool Victoria ward Hospital
John Butler, 61, pictured with his wife, Madeleine, 61, took a photo of his wife on the floor because he was so outraged by her treatment. He said it took the nurses 30 minutes to find a trolley for his wife. She spent about 36 hours in the emergency room before being admitted to a ward
Her husband John said the doctor instead gave her a blanket and pillow so she could lie on the floor at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
Garden centre worker John, from Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, said: ‘I was absolutely shocked.
‘I didn’t realize how angry I was until I got home and looked at the picture of her on the floor.
‘How is that acceptable in this day and age? A terminally ill patient lying on the floor?
“I still can’t believe a doctor thought it was acceptable for her to be on the floor for so long.”
John took his wife to the hospital around 3 a.m. on Sunday because she was suffering from symptoms of an infection.
About 30 minutes after arriving she had blood tests and about three and a half hours later she saw a doctor who agreed it was probably sepsis.
John says the nurses took action when they saw his wife lying on the floor and managed to get her a cart within half an hour.
But it was not until Wednesday evening that she was admitted to a ward.
The incident has made him angry, as he is convinced the situation could have been resolved immediately.
He added: ‘Within half an hour of seeing her on the ward, the nurses had already arranged a stretcher for her. So I suspect stretchers were available at that time.
Terminal cancer patient Madeleine Butcher, 61, was left on the floor of Blackpool Victoria Hospital’s emergency department with just a blanket and pillow after staff said there were no beds available
‘It’s not ideal, but at least a trolley is more comfortable than the floor or chairs in the emergency room.
“The hallways weren’t that full, it wasn’t that busy, as far as I could see, but I also didn’t see how short staffed there were.
‘When you’re put under pressure you make mistakes and I think they were under a lot of pressure.
‘One of the doctors described the Emergency Department as a war zone, so I can imagine that some people would have a hard time in that situation.
‘I feel like the problems go back decades under successive governments, back to Margaret Thatcher, and nothing has really improved since then.
‘We are seeing a creeping privatisation of the NHS and that is not right.
‘The fact that you can go to a private hospital for faster treatment than the NHS and often see the same doctors is not right.
“There are not enough nurses, not enough beds.”
Mother-of-two Madeleine is currently on sick leave from her job as a legal cashier and remains in hospital while being treated for sepsis.
It is a condition that she has often suffered from since she was diagnosed with cancer and for which she often requires 10 to 14 days of treatment.
John said he was frustrated with the system and how difficult it is for his wife to get the treatment she needs when it flares up.
He said: ‘Some of the staff are fantastic, but the systems just don’t seem to be in place to cope with the pressure.’
‘The annoying thing for us is that we know exactly what’s going on, but you have to go through the assessment and waiting process every time.
“Even if oncology calls and says she needs to be admitted, you still have to go through the ER and listen to the drunks. It’s not a nice place to go.”
Madeleine underwent a full hysterectomy about 18 months ago and it was hoped that after the operation she would be completely cured of cancer.
But unfortunately the disease had spread further and she was later diagnosed with terminal endometrial cancer.
John said: ‘It’s always the same routine. You call 911 and they tell you to go to the emergency room.
“You go to the emergency room and wait a while before entering an assessment room.
‘She usually stays inside for about ten days before she can go outside again. She is given antibiotics, an IV, fluids and other things to control the infection.
“We’ve had good care, average care and bad care. Sometimes the system can’t handle it, I’m not convinced it’s just money thrown at it.”
Marie Forshaw, acting director of nursing, midwifery, allied health and quality at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘We have received a formal complaint about the care of Mrs Butcher in the Emergency Department.
‘I would like to thank her for coming and I am very sorry if the quality of care she received did not meet the high standards our patients have a right to expect.
‘Every complaint we receive is thoroughly assessed so that we can understand the situation and put any improvements into practice.’
Commenting on the case, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “This is what the Conservatives have done to our NHS and it is a disgrace.
‘Rishi Sunak should have the decency to apologise to this poor woman.
“The NHS is crying out for change, and only Labor has a plan to deliver it.”
Data from NHS England showed that 54,000 patients spent more than 48 hours in A&E and almost 19,000 patients spent more than three days – many without even a stretcher to wait on.
Wait times of more than 12 hours for emergency care have increased tenfold since 2019, and 40 percent of patients wait much longer than four hours before being discharged, transferred or admitted.
This comes after emergency department nurses were caught on film laughing about missing targets after admitting one of their patients had been waiting 46 hours for care.
The shocking state of NHS care was exposed after a Channel 4 Dispatches reporter went undercover in the emergency room at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and posed as a trainee nursing assistant.