These are the lengths gone to by the mother of a five-year-old with a broken arm who couldn’t get a bed at Queen’s Hospital.

Hanah Ahmed, 34, of Church Road, Dagenham, placed her son Zaher Ali on the floor under a blanket after “snapping” with frustration at a five-hour wait.

Hospital bosses said they had unsuccessfully tried to contact the family and no complaint had been made, but admitted they were experiencing bed pressures on October 28, the night of the incident.

Mirvat Abdulrab was with Ms Ahmed, her sister, and Zaher when he was taken to hospital at about 8pm after falling over playing with his sister.

She said: “We went to the A&E at King George. They said: ‘This is serious; Queen’s will take you –

“So we went to Queen’s and when we got there they said: ‘Sorry – we’ve got no beds. We will call you when we’ve got one.’

“We asked when that would be and they said: ‘It probably won’t be until tomorrow’.”

She said staff give her nephew no sling and no painkillers.

“The boy was in agony, but they wouldn’t do anything about it,” she said.

“At 3am, [Hanah] snapped and put him down on the floor and said: ‘I’m putting him here until you get him a bed’.”

It wasn’t until 8am the following morning that Zaher was offered a bed, his family claims.

In the meantime, the family had taken him home before getting him admitted by the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel – 13 miles away.

Ms Ahmed added: “He was treated like he was an animal.”

Flo Panel-Coates is chief nurse at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT), which runs Queen’s.

She said: “We have tried to contact Zaher’s family to discuss their concerns, but have not received a complaint from them.

“Unfortunately this also means they have not agreed to us sharing any details of Zaher’s care.

“Like all other hospitals, if we are experiencing bed pressures, a patient who does not need immediate treatment may be discharged home so they can sleep in their own bed before returning for a planned operation.”