Cancer patient, 81, 'left for hours in a chair' at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital

Barry Davies, 81, from Ironbridge went into the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to have fluid drained from his stomach and, because of the operation, had to remain in hospital overnight.

But his daughters, Karen Mitchell and Nina Powell say they were horrified when staff couldn't find a bed for their father and many other patients.

Mrs Mitchell from Leighton, said: "My dad went into hospital in the morning to have the fluid drained, they were expecting him.

"Yet there was simply no bed available for him to stay overnight. The cancer unit allowed him to remain there and in fact a member of staff stayed on late so he could remain the in unit as long as possible but at 6pm they put him in a wheelchair and took him to the main hospital.

Mrs Powell said: "At first he had to spend about an hour in the wheelchair then they found him a reclining chair which at first we couldn't recline because there just wasn't enough room. It was about four hours until they found a bed. He wasn't the only one either. There was other patients, including one with throat cancer, another with heart problems sitting on chairs."

Mrs Mitchell said that all the food her father was offered during during her father's admission to hospital last Tuesday was a sandwich.

"It is not the staff, it is the system," she said.

"Dr O'Connor and his staff are absolutely outstanding."

"But we were let down when my mother died four years ago and my father has been let down now. He is 81 and like most older people he is not one to want to make a fuss. But if people don't know that this is happening then nothing is going to change."

Debbie Kadum, chief operating officer at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: "Our hospitals, as the Shropshire Star has regularly reported, continue to experience very high levels of demand for our services.

"As well as the often reported effect this has on A&E, clearly demand has a potential impact on all of the services we offer for the half a million people we serve in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales.

"We continue to work with our partners in local healthcare to speed up the transfer of people who are in our hospitals but who no longer need the specialist levels of care we provide. On any one day the number of those patients exceeds the equivalent capacity of two of our wards.

"I am sorry to hear that Mr Davis's family believe his wait in our hospital was too long, but am pleased to hear them say that the standard of care we provided to Mr Davis was 'outstanding'. We pride ourselves on the care we offer our patients even at challenging times."