Grimsby, UK – 25th November, 2019: A man who had suffered a heart attack had to be seen by a doctor while waiting in an ambulance outside Grimsby's hospital because its accident and emergency department was so busy.
Les Bonner had to wait a total of more than 10 hours between falling ill at his home and eventually being transferred for surgery, including spending four-and-a-half hours on a trolley after being admitted to hospital.
But despite this, he has praised the NHS staff who cared for him and said without them, he may not be alive today.
Les quickly called an ambulance after falling ill at around 7pm and within 10 minutes, a first responder arrived by car to treat him, with the ambulance arriving an hour later to take him to Grimsby's Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital.
However once he arrived at the hospital, the A&E department was too busy for him to be taken inside and he remained inside the vehicle until a doctor came to check up on him at around 9pm.
It was then deemed that his condition was serious enough for him to be admitted to hospital and once inside, he was placed on a trolley until he was able to be brought into a cubicle at 1.30am.
He remained there until 5.30am, when he was transferred to Castle Hill Hospital near Hull for surgery.
Les said while he was on his hospital trolley, he felt very concerned about the pressures the staff were under, believing they were overwhelmed with the number of people they had to treat and the amount of staff available.
Speaking about his ordeal, which happened earlier this year, he said: "I have suffered with heart problems for about 10 years now and had been having some further issues in the lead up to the summer.
"At the beginning of the summer, I was given an appointment to see the cardiologist in October, but then in July I suffered quite a serious heart attack.
"As soon as it happened, I phoned an ambulance and was told that it could be some time but a first responder arrived at my door in about 10 minutes. Then an hour later the ambulance arrived and took me to hospital.
"When we got there, the emergency queue in A&E stretched right out to the hospital car park and this did not include the queue for walk-ins but I didn't see that.
"While I was sat in the car park, waiting in an ambulance, a doctor came out to check on my condition and I was eventually brought into the hospital and admitted.
"I was placed on a hospital trolley, where I sat for four-and-a-half hours, before I was placed into a cubicle. During that time I sat and watched doctors and nurses, from all different nationalities, rushing around trying to do their very best for patients with the resources that they had, but they were struggling.
"They have just not been given the right level of support and funding to run their life-saving service properly.
"These health workers that we have in the hospital are brilliant and provide excellent care but the sad thing is the NHS has been so underfunded, it is making their job very difficult.
"I waited a long time to be seen, but there would have been many more in the hospital that day waiting longer than me, because I was bumped up the queue a few times because of how serious my condition was."
Les said he hoped the forthcoming General Election could lead to making sure that the NHS is better funded in the future.
He said: "How can the Tories claim that our NHS is working properly, when this is a regular occurrence? This system should not work like this, but years of underfunding have taken their toll.
"I urge all voters to take action in this election and remove the Conservatives for the sake of our NHS."
The Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital in Grimsby, said Les would not have been seen in the public car park, but the ambulance bays next to the car park.
Trust officials say this is a rare occurrence that can happen when a number of ambulances arrive at the department at once.
Shaun Stacy, chief operating officer for the trust, said: "I am sorry to hear about this gentleman's wait in A&E. Whilst we cannot discuss individual cases due to confidentially, I can say that our staff work incredibly hard to ensure people attending as urgent and emergency cases are seen and treated as quickly as possible.
"To try and reduce the pressures on our emergency services, we have introduced a number of new ways of working including the use of ambulatory or same day emergency care facilities within the hospital. The trust has also worked hard since the summer to reduce the length of time patients wait to be handed over by the ambulance service.
"Like many hospitals across the country, our A&E continues to see an increasing number of people attending, however we strive to manage these volumes with the resources we have as quickly as possible."
Source: https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/grimsby-news/heart-attack-patient-seen-doctor-3569429