Hospital patient 'degraded' after being 'forced to defecate in bed'
A hospital patient says he was forced to defecate in his bed and on the floor after being told he couldn't use a commode due to "safety reasons".
Paul Burman was admitted to the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford with sepsis on September 6, and spent just over a week there before being discharged on September 15.
The 67-year-old said he needs the use of a commode when using the toilet, but staff said he wouldn't be able to use the one at the hospital and claims they instead came to alternative arrangements which left him feeling "degraded".
Mr Burman, of Albrighton, says he is speaking out as he does not want any other patient to have to endure a similar experience, and claims there should have been procedures which were followed to prevent it from happening in the first place.
"The staff said I wasn't to go to it for safety reasons – I think that meant that it wouldn't be strong enough to hold me with me being sat on it because of my weight," he said.
"But I told them that I use a similar one at home.
"They were saying there was nothing they could do at the time.
"On one evening they decided the only thing they could do was for someone to come down and line the bed out with absorbent material.
"They covered the bed sheets with it and left me to it, in other words what I had to do was defecate in the bed.
"The next time they put absorbent material down on the floor by my bed and I had to stand on it and defecate.
"I felt degraded, and like I was being treated like a stray dog.
"The nurses were wonderful. They can only do what they are told but there should have been something there so I could use the toilet. I just don't want this to happen to anyone else."
A spokesperson for The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs PRH as well as Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, said: “We always strive to provide the highest possible levels of care to those we serve and, for where we may not have lived up to this, we have a comprehensive complaints process in place.
"If Mr Burman would like to make a formal complaint about his treatment, we will ensure a full and thorough investigation is undertaken.”
