'Why was I stuck in a hospital bed?' - Patient 'trapped' for three days by NHS red tape
A disabled man wants to know why he spent three days ‘trapped’ in hospital because of a row over who would foot the bill for his transfer home.
Roger Whitting, from Oswestry, was taken to an accident and emergency department across the Welsh border after fears he may have suffered a stroke.
After a night in the Wrexham Maelor Hospital on May 20 Mr Whitting, who was full of praise for his treatment, was discharged.
But, having been left disabled in an accident in 2013, he needed an ambulance to get him home.
He was then effectively stranded because of a mix-up over NHS rules on who pays for cross-border ambulances at weekends.
Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group said Welsh Ambulance Service should have taken Mr Whitting home as part of its weekend arrangements.
Mr Whitting said: “I understand that the hospital contacted the Welsh Ambulance Service and was told it wasn’t able to transfer patients across the border to England on Sundays – while the English ambulance said it was not able to cross to Wales to pick up a patient. I couldn’t believe it and neither could the staff.
“One was so frustrated she went outside where three Welsh ambulances were sitting empty as it was a quiet day and asked if they could quickly take me home. They said their hands were tied.”
Mr Whitting, 61, spent Sunday night in hospital hoping the problem would be solved by the next morning.
He said: “It was no better. It seemed no-one was prepared to foot the bill to get me home. I felt trapped in a bed in the hospital when I was medically fit to go home.
“Everyone talks about bed blocking yet for the price of the fuel for a few miles I was using a bed that someone else should have been able to have.
“At home I had my carers on standby to come in and look after me as they do. At home I also have a state-of-the-art bed that turns me every 30 minutes to prevent pressure sores and infections.
“The care I have from the paramedics, ambulance staff and everyone at the hospital was first class and couldn’t be faulted.
"I am on lots of medication that luckily I took with me when I was admitted.
"At home I would self administer this or my carers would help me. In hospital nurses had to go through their protocol and give up a lot of their time to give me my tablets.
“The hospital found me an air mattress because of my disability but the NHS cost of handling me and having me in hospital must have been enormous and it was so unnecessary.”
Mr Whitting was eventually found an ambulance to take him home on Tuesday.
Dr Julie Davies, director of performance and delivery at Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “We are sorry that this patient experienced a delay in getting home from hospital as Shropshire CCG has arrangements in place for this type of non-emergency patient transport service.
“Wrexham Maelor Hospital should have contacted the Welsh Ambulance Service to collect the patient and then it would have simply been a case that the CCG would be recharged for the journey and would pay the associated bill. I
"f the Welsh Ambulance Service were unable to take the patient home, then Wrexham Maelor Hospital should have contacted Falck, which is the non-emergency patient transport service provider for Shropshire patients.
“Shropshire CCG will take steps to ensure that Wrexham Maelor Hospital is reminded of the established process in place.”
Welsh Ambulance Service did not want to comment.
