| Posted: September 23, 2014
By Allison Coggan
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PATIENTS have been forced to wash using sick bowls, wait hours for a drink and use commodes in public view after they were moved onto an empty ward.
About 20 patients were moved onto an empty ward because of a severe bed shortage at Hull Royal Infirmary over the weekend.
Speaking from her hospital bed, Lynne Addicott, 52, said she was first to arrive on Sunday night after 8.30pm. She watched as patient after patient was wheeled onto Ward 5 until 1.30am yesterday morning.
Mrs Addicott, who was admitted to hospital for surgery on an abscess, said: "There are 20 of us here now and it's absolutely terrible. The ward is falling to pieces.
"There are no side tables so we've got no jugs of water. We got our first drink this morning at 9.30am and there's one jug between five of us.
"I'm the most mobile out of us here and I've got rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis but I'm having to run about helping the others and giving them something to drink because the nurses are just rushed off their feet with everyone else.
"There are no bins, no dressings on the wards and no bowls for us to wash in, so we were given sick bowls this morning.
"It is an absolute disgrace."
Earlier this year, inspectors from the Care Quality Commission called for action after discovering patient care was being compromised by staff shortages and nurses were struggling to cope with crippling workloads.
Ward 5 was emptied and patients were shifted to Ward 12 in the past week as part of the refurbishment of the tower block.
However, the replacement of windows in the ward has been put on hold because of huge numbers of patients arriving at the hospital over the weekend, forcing managers to reopen Ward 5.
Mrs Addicott was referred to Hull Royal's emergency department on Saturday night and was admitted to Ward 6 in the early hours of Sunday morning. She underwent her operation to remove the abscess on Sunday and was taken back to the ward to recover.
However, at about 8.30pm on Sunday night, a healthcare assistant came into her room and told her she was being moved as her bed was needed.
Mrs Addicott, of Anlaby, said: "I was the first to arrive and there was nothing here. They were still wheeling patients in until 1.30am this morning but there's no equipment and nothing here for us.
"There are people here who need help feeding themselves and there are two nurses who are being asked to care for all of us. They are doing their best but they just can't see to all of us.
"I've got a curtain round my bed but the woman next to me doesn't and she's had to use a commode in full view of everyone. When she was getting washed this morning with the sick bowl, one of the nurses had to hold a towel up at the window to stop everyone seeing."
She claimed patient care was being seriously compromised, with patients having to wait for medication.
"There is a woman here with heart problems and she hasn't had her medication yet," Mrs Addicott said. "We are not getting drinks for hours at a time.
"My dressing leaked all over my bed earlier on and I asked to get it changed. There was no dressings on the ward, so the nurse had to go off ward to get some.
"I've then heard the nurses shouting, asking if anyone's got any scissors. It's been a closed ward so there's absolutely nothing here, not even chairs for us to put our bags on."
'Large increase in demand'
Morag Olsen, the deputy chief executive at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "Over the weekend, our urgent care services experienced a large increase in demand.
"As a result of a high admissions, coupled with limited bed capacity, we took the decision to open a temporary ward on the fifth floor of the Hull Royal Infirmary tower block.
"Owing to the urgency with which this decision was taken, it was not possible to have empty ward space fully prepared to receive patients, however, the fifth floor is now fully operational.
"While we are managing the demands on our services as best we can, we do have a limited number of beds available and the pressures on staff and services are being compounded by a high volume of people attending the Emergency Department with minor problems which could be more appropriately treated elsewhere.
"We have a large number of very sick and very vulnerable people in hospital right now so, to help us concentrate on their needs and provide the best possible care we can for them, we would really appreciate the public’s understanding and we really need their co-operation."
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