A war veteran with walking difficulties spent 10 hours on a hospital trolley without being examined – before being sent home in the middle of the night in only his pyjamas.
Queen’s Hospital has apologised for the wait Dereck Crisp, 68, faced in its A&E department on Monday, May 12, after complaining to his GP of severe back pains.
However, no one will shoulder responsibility for leaving him sat in reception for a further three hours between 2am and 5am while he waited for an ambulance to take him home.
The retired Reg Sgt Maj, who lives alone in Dagenham, claimed he was told to leave after being left on a hospital trolley for 10 hours, having originally checked in at 4pm.
Even after he was discharged at 2am, with no local family to call upon and unable able to walk due to his condition, the father-of-two had no choice but to wait another three hours for the ambulance.
Dereck, who spent 30 years in the army and served in the Falklands and the first Gulf war, told the Post: “To be treated like that after all those years serving your Queen and country is terrible.
“No one in the hospital seemed to want to do anything to help. I’ve never been treated like that before.
“You begin to wonder ‘is it because of my age?’”
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, which manages Queen’s in Romford, apologised for Dereck’s wait in A&E, but said London Ambulance Service – not BHRUT – was responsible for the delayed ambulance.
Flo-Panel Coates, director of nursing, called Dereck’s A&E wait “an exceptional occurrence caused by unusually heavy congestion in both our radiography and emergency departments”.
However, an LAS spokesman said responsibility for the ambulance delay lay with subcontractors G4S.
A spokesman for the private security firm said: “We also apologise to Mr Crisp. We are looking into the reasons behind the delay and will revert to Mr Crisp directly.”
The incident comes amid growing national fears over the number of frail and elderly patients discharged from hospitals at night.
NHS medical director Prof Sir Bruce Keogh told hospitals to end the practice two years ago but latest figures show 18,500 patients over the age of 75 were discharged between 11pm and 6am in the past year.
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