Cancer patient, 77, sat and slept in chair for 48 hours at Northampton General Hospital as there were no free beds

A 77-year-old woman with cancer was left to sit and sleep in a chair at Northampton General Hospital for 48 hours because there were no beds available.

Patricia Douglas was sent to the hospital on Tuesday (October 4) by her GP surgery after picking up a chest infection which needed antibiotics to treat it. Despite being booked in by her doctor, Patricia waited five hours in A&E before she was placed on an intravenous drip in a chair.

The hospital has apologised for the long wait times.

Patricia's daughter Samantha Dignan said: "It's very dangerous [waiting in A&E]. My mum, because she has cancer, has no immune system, if she picks up Covid or any other infection, that could be catastrophic. It's seriously, seriously dangerous."

The pensioner was then made to sit and sleep upright in the chair in a corridor with the IV drip until midday on Thursday (October 6) because there were no beds available.

Samantha said: "They had her in a chair in the observation department of A&E from Tuesday to Thursday.

"I didn't realise until Thursday morning she was in a chair, I thought she was at least on a bed.

"My heart was breaking. She is 77 years old. She is my mum. Nobody should be treated like that. It's just absolutely disgusting. They didn't tell us she was just stuck in a chair, we could have tried to do something before that."

Samantha says the hospital has “just got people stacked and packed sitting in chairs attached to drips”.

She said: "[My mum] has said that the whole of A&E is completely gridlocked and filthy dirty.

"My mum is not the only one. This has been ongoing for a long time. Why is it happening? We're all paying our national insurance, we're all paying into the system. This is just terrible.

"I think now, we're in a situation where Northampton General Hospital is not big enough for the town. It's as simple as that. Staff shortages, too many people and not a big enough hospital. I'm not sure what the answer is."

At midday on Thursday Patricia was released with tablet antibiotics and taken home by Samantha to recover in comfort.

Samantha said: "She is now home although extremely ill and should be in hospital but there are no beds. I will now be looking after her at home with tablet antibiotics instead of IV antibiotics."

A Northampton General Hospital spokeswoman apologised and put the long wait times down to a “high demand” for the emergency unit.

The spokeswoman said: "We are always sorry when patients have a longer wait than we would like in our Emergency Department. We are currently seeing a very high demand for our Emergency and Urgent Care services. Our teams are working incredibly hard to care for patients and see them as quickly as they can.

"We would urge any patients or their loved ones to please speak to the team in the department with any concerns, or to raise any issues with our patient advice and liaison service who can listen to, support and investigate any concerns."