Trust 'working hard' to free up beds after Bridgnorth woman left 'exposed' in hospital corridor
A Shropshire hospital trust said it is "working hard" to free up beds after a woman who was treated in a hospital corridor said she felt exposed after other patients saw her changing her clothes.
Isabel Aston from near Bridgnorth was taken to Princess Royal Hospital in Telford with pneumonia and sepsis and said she spent seven hours on a bed in a corridor.
She later told the BBC that she felt "exposed" when other patients saw her changing her clothes.
She told the broadcaster: "People were walking in both directions [and] there aren't screens around your bed so people wanting the toilet who couldn't get out of bed were faced with the thought of using a bed pan in full view."
She added that on feeling hot at one point, she wanted to change her t-shirt, but the process proved lengthy due to cannulas in her arms.
"I did not have anything on underneath," she said. "I'm 64 years of age, I've probably reached an age where I'm not so self-conscious perhaps, but that could have been a much younger patient.
"That could have been a patient for whom perhaps culturally they couldn't have changed their t-shirt... or somebody who had mastectomy scars [and] were very self-conscious.
"It is wholly inappropriate for patients to be so exposed when they are so ill."
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) said in a statement that it is working hard to free up beds.
Hayley Flavell, director of nursing at SaTH, said: “Our hospitals remain under pressure and this means that on occasion we have patients waiting in our Emergency Department (ED) corridor.
"This is not the level of care we aspire to, and we are doing all that we can to avoid this, through working with our system partners and developing alternative pathways.
“The safety and care of our patients is our main priority with additional staff allocated when required and all fire regulations adhered to. We also try to maintain the dignity of our patients as much as possible with screens.
“All available additional space within the trust is open.
"We are working hard with system partners to release additional capacity in the community to support patients who are ready to be discharged from hospital as quickly as possible to free up beds and improve flow through our EDs.”
