'Disgusted' man criticises Northampton General Hospital after mother, 76, waits two hours in 'freezing' cold outside A&E

A man has criticised Northampton General Hospital (NGH) after his 76-year-old mother was made to wait outside A&E in the “freezing” cold for two hours.

Mark Warren took his mother Francis to the accident and emergency department just off Billing Road on Wednesday, October 19 as her blood pressure was “through the roof”. The mother, who suffered a stroke in May, initially tried to get seen at Kingsthorpe Medical Centre (KMC) but was reportedly told the surgery was not doing face to face consultations.

Mark said: "They prescribed her treatment over the phone. If you've got a problem with your car, does the garage diagnose and fix the issue over the phone?"

KMC was asked if it was taking face to face appointments. A spokeswoman for the practice said: "The practice will be making no comment."

Mark then took his mother down to A&E and was left waiting outside for two hours, from 4.30pm until 6.30pm, before she was officially booked in. He said: "There was a line of people all outside. It was quite a cold day. We sat outside for about two hours before we got checked in. I had to go and get blankets from the staff. I was disgusted. There were a couple of over 70s, potentially 80 year olds sat outside with no blankets. At least get them in the warmth."

Francis was in A&E, sat in the same wheelchair, until 10.30am the next day before she was finally released. Mark said: "It wasn't the kind of thing you expect from the NHS. Coming into winter, you shouldn't have people sat outside for two hours, freezing cold having to use blankets to keep warm.

"When we got into the hospital there was no care. It's just a little bit scary really. We're more like a developing country than we are a developed country. It was a joke. An absolute joke."

An NGH spokesman said the A&E department is “under significant pressure”.

The spokesman said: "Our A&E department is under significant pressure with a large volume of patients attending every day. Walk-in arrivals are usually initially clinically assessed within 15 minutes of arrival but in some periods there can be queues. Patient safety is always our top priority and we ensure patients are seen in the order of clinical priority.

"Our A&E department is small and current patient volumes mean we do not have enough indoor waiting capacity. As an interim measure earlier this year we erected a shelter to protect patients from the elements. We accept that waiting outside is unsatisfactory and we are exploring how best to provide more comfortable indoor waiting areas in the future.

"We apologise to all patients who experience long waits. Our teams work very hard to see patients as soon as possible."

Chronicle & Echo covered another story last month (October), which reported on an elderly woman sitting, and sleeping, in the same wheelchair at NGH for 48 hours because there were no available beds.