Terminal cancer patient forced to sleep on floor in ER due to lack of beds
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has branded the crisis in NHS hospitals “a disgrace” after it emerged a terminally ill cancer patient was forced to sleep on the floor of the A&E department because there were no beds available.
Madeleine Butcher underwent a hysterectomy 18 months ago after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2022.
The 62-year-old woman from Blackpool had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and had already been to the emergency room several times due to sepsis following her chemotherapy.
Her 61-year-old husband John told The Blackpool Gazette that she has been in hospital for ten days following previous incidents and is being given antibiotics, a drip and fluids to control the infection.
But this time, when he took Mrs Butcher to Blackpool Victoria Hospital at around 3am on Sunday, he was ‘shocked’.
Terminal cancer patient Madeleine Butcher, 61, was left on the emergency room floor of Blackpool Victoria Hospital with just a blanket and pillow after staff said there were no beds available
Ms Butcher was given blood tests about half an hour after arriving and saw a doctor more than three hours later, who agreed she was likely suffering from sepsis, the newspaper reported.
But despite her prognosis, she was told she could have to wait up to 36 hours in the emergency room before she could be seen.
Mrs Butcher, who has not only a tumor but also a hernia as a result of her operation, told hospital staff that she felt uncomfortable and could no longer sit down.
However, when we asked her if there was a bed, a cart or even a relaxing chair on which she could make herself comfortable, she was told that there was ‘nothing available’.
Instead, a doctor gave her a blanket and a pillow so she could lie on the floor.
‘I was completely shocked. I only realized how angry I was when I got home and looked at the photo of her on the floor,β Mr Butcher told The Gazette.
Furious, he could not understand how any doctor would think it was acceptable for his wife, a terminally ill patient, to lie on the floor.
However, nurses took action and managed to find a cart within half an hour after they saw what was happening.
But he believes the problem should have been resolved earlier.
Mr Streeting said of the case: ‘This is what the Conservatives have done to our NHS and it is a disgrace.
‘Rishi Sunak should have the decency to apologize to this poor woman.
βThe NHS is crying out for change, and only Labor has a plan to deliver it.β
Marie Forshaw, acting director of the Department of Nursing, Midwifery, Allied Healthcare Professionals and Quality, said they had received a formal complaint about Ms Butcher’s care.
βI would like to thank her for coming and I am deeply sorry if the quality of care she received did not meet the high standards our patients have a right to expect,β she said.
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.
Waiting times of more than 12 hours at emergency departments have increased 100-fold since 2019. 40 percent of patients have to wait much longer than four hours before being discharged, transferred or admitted.
It comes after emergency room nurses were caught on film laughing at their failure to meet targets after admitting one of their patients had already waited 46 hours for care.
The shocking state of NHS care was revealed after a Channel 4 Dispatches reporter went undercover in the emergency department of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, posing as a trainee healthcare assistant.