‘Staff were doing their utmost’: Couple who spent 30 hours in hospital corridor praise under-pressure NHS workers

A cancer sufferer spent 30 hours on a bed in a hospital corridor – but his wife has praised under-pressure staff for their resilience.

Aberdeen Royal Infirmary is under extreme pressure at the moment, and earlier this week put out an urgent call for any medical staff currently on holiday or days off to head into work.

George Kindness, who has advanced cancer, was admitted to hospital just days after Christmas.

The 67-year-old waited more than six hours to be seen by a doctor before spending around 30 hours in a bed in the hospital corridor.

His wife Kathleen, 67, described scenes of chaos and overcrowding as staff battled to keep services running.

“It’s a small waiting area open to the corridor and it was crowded,” she said.

“My husband was there from noon to 6.30pm until he was seen and allocated a bed.

“He was in the same ward that had been receiving patients until about 11pm when he was transferred to another ward where he spent that night in really a little corridor alcove just beside the nurse’s station.”

Call-out for help

On Friday, NHS Grampian appealed to off-duty staff to help due to the “extreme level of pressure” they were facing.

Part of the issue appears to have been a bottleneck of patients unable to be discharged due to a lack of health at home or in residential settings.

Opposition politicians said the “shocking situation” exposed the crisis within the NHS and called for Health Secretary Humza Yousaf to go.

Mr Yousaf pointed to “Covid backlogs, rising cases of flu and Strep A, delayed discharge and a cold snap”, describing it as one of the toughest winters in the history of the NHS while saying health boards should do “what is necessary” to deal with the pressures.

Last month, a paramedic claimed patients were at risk of harm as they queued outside the hospital for up to eight hours in the back of ambulances.

‘It was certainly a bit of an eye-opener’

Mrs Kindness, a retired hospital psychologist, said her husband’s two-day stay at ARI was an eye-opener in understanding just how under pressure staff are.

The 67-year-old said: “Although we are, with George’s illness, familiar with the hospital and clinics, we hadn’t witnessed firsthand just how utterly pressed the staff are in keeping things going.

“I believe there was a nurse in the receiving ward who spent all day trying to find beds for people.

“We knew of all these problems… but it was certainly a bit of an eye-opener to see just how difficult things are for all the staff and the patients.”

The couple want to thank staff for their care and attention.

Acts of kindness shone through the turmoil

Mrs Kindness, who stays in Cults, said: “We were grateful for the medical attention. The nurses in the ward where he spent the time in the corridor couldn’t have been more pleasant and helpful. The doctors were also very attentive and pinpointed problems.

“The way that the nurses and the receptionist were valiantly trying to make things as smooth as possible, I thought was noteworthy.

“People were doing their utmost in a difficult situation.

“The human will to be of service to one another was very, very evident in both the wards that he spent time in.”

“I’m a retired psychologist, there were lots of little acts of thoughtfulness and kindness between patients,” she added.

“It’s amazing what you see in that sort of situation where there were lots of people with all sorts of different problems who were waiting together to be seen.”