terminally ill mum is treated in hospital bathroom - 13th Jan 2009 5:27pm
A TERMINALLY ill woman was treated in a bathroom due to overcrowding at Liverpool’s biggest hospital.
Pictures taken by relatives showed 79-year-old Gladys Joynes lying in bed in the makeshift ward, where she stayed for up to 12 hours.
They said the situation was an “affront to human dignity”.
The Mossley Hill pensioner, who is in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease, was taken off her drip when the machine’s batteries ran out.
It could not be plugged in because there were no sockets in the bathroom, which contained a foul-smelling bath, a commode and an overflowing litter bin.
Staff had to place Mrs Joynes’s tray of food on the floor because there was nowhere else.
Royal officials say they are coping with “unprecedented” levels of patients, with around 150 more a week than this time last year.
Today they apologised about how Mrs Joynes was treated and said a full investigation was under way.
Mrs Joynes’s daughter Kathleen Huxley, a forensic psychologist, said the family wanted the photos to be seen to spur the hospital and politicians to resolve the overcrowding crisis.
She said: “My sister rang me from the hospital and she was in floods of tears. When she arrived there on Friday, they said ‘we need to take you to see her now’ and took her to the bathroom.
“They have apologised, but if we had not found her or she did not have any family, how long could she have been there?
<----CLICK HEAR--->
Pictures taken by relatives showed 79-year-old Gladys Joynes lying in bed in the makeshift ward, where she stayed for up to 12 hours.
They said the situation was an “affront to human dignity”.
The Mossley Hill pensioner, who is in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease, was taken off her drip when the machine’s batteries ran out.
It could not be plugged in because there were no sockets in the bathroom, which contained a foul-smelling bath, a commode and an overflowing litter bin.
Staff had to place Mrs Joynes’s tray of food on the floor because there was nowhere else.
Royal officials say they are coping with “unprecedented” levels of patients, with around 150 more a week than this time last year.
Today they apologised about how Mrs Joynes was treated and said a full investigation was under way.
Mrs Joynes’s daughter Kathleen Huxley, a forensic psychologist, said the family wanted the photos to be seen to spur the hospital and politicians to resolve the overcrowding crisis.
She said: “My sister rang me from the hospital and she was in floods of tears. When she arrived there on Friday, they said ‘we need to take you to see her now’ and took her to the bathroom.
“They have apologised, but if we had not found her or she did not have any family, how long could she have been there?
<----CLICK HEAR--->
sad 