A patient is disputing hospital bosses’ claims of a lack of a beds crisis at Noble’s.

Margaret Bedford said her experience had differed sharply from the picture painted by the hospital’s official figures reported in last week’s Examiner.

The 56-year-old from Port Erin has suffered from Crohn’s disease for more than 30 years.

Meeting Margaret Bedford you can see that she is obviously frail, weighing around six and half stone.

Her illness has meant she has needed four major surgeries in the past and it has caused several acute flare-ups which have required hospital admission, on at least one occasion in the Intensive Care Unit.

Everything in her medical records would indicate a patient whose care should be a priority, yet, following her experience just over a fortnight ago, she says simply: ’I just don’t feel safe now.’

In Margaret’s case, her Crohn’s Disease has left her with short bowel syndrome and an ileostomy bag.

This means that her body has problems absorbing enough fluids to prevent her from getting dehydrated.

If this happens, Margaret needs to be admitted to hospital immediately and put on a drip to prevent kidney damage.

This has happened several times in the past, enough for Margaret to be able to recognise the symptoms and this is what made her go to her GP on the morning of Monday, July 30. Her GP said that she should be admitted immediately to Ward 6.

Margaret recalls: ’I refused the ambulance and said my daughter, Stephanie, would take me and I came to get my stuff and within 10 minutes of being home the surgery phoned and said: "We’ve a problem there’s no beds on Ward 6, would you head straight to A&E they’re expecting you".’

So Margaret and her daughter headed to A&E and arrived there at around 11am, expecting to be dealt with fairly quickly. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case and after a long wait Margaret was taken into triage.

Margaret continues: ’My daughter asked: "Why are we here? Mum’s supposed to be taken straight through, we should be on Ward 6" and the nurse said: "We’ve got no beds" so that was the second time we were told that.’

Finally, after they had been waiting just over two hours, Margaret’s pain and discomfort had grown so bad she could stand it no longer and she walked out, intending to go straight home.

When Stephanie went to inform the staff that they were leaving she was told: ’It doesn’t make any difference if you come in an ambulance - there’s people sitting here 10 hours waiting for a bed on a ward.’

Luckily one of the nurses recognised Margaret from previous admissions and she persuaded her to come back inside. Margaret continues her story: ’I was sat for about five minutes then I was called through [to a bed in A&E] and they got me on a drip and a doctor came. About an hour later I was taken through to Ward 6.’

She spent two nights in hospital before being discharged.

Admissions

Her discharge notes record ’acute kidney injury’ which may or may not have been caused by the long wait to go on a drip.

They also say under the heading ’admission method’: ’GP direct to ward’, something which, along with the hospital’s assertion that there is no bed shortage, has understandably incensed Margaret.

The official figures from hospital director, Mike Quinn, stated that, at 7.30am on July 30, there were ’four beds available’ to patients.

Margaret says: ’He’s said "There were four beds" - there were no beds! There might have been four beds at 7.30am but that’s no good to us.’

Margaret believes the situation has been exacerbated by the closure of Ward 5 earlier this year, as she says: ’Because everybody went to Ward 5 and Ward 6 for medical assessment then they were transferred to wherever they needed to go. I just could not believe that Ward 5 had gone.’

She continues: ’I keep reading in the newspapers that the Isle of Man wants more people to come and live here for our economy - they can’t even cope with people who are born and bred here and have lived here for 56 years.

’And the staff have to stand there and deal with the brunt of it. How on earth are they going to cope [with more people]?

’I’ve never had a problem [with the hospital] before but that was ridiculous: that experience scared me to death.’

Demand

Despite Margaret’s experience the hospital is continuing to insist that there were beds available on the morning of July 30, saying in a statement: ’Regarding recent concern about admissions on 30 July 2018, there were four empty medical beds at 7.30am.

’That situation remained constant throughout the day, as there were 16 discharges from the medical bed base with a corresponding demand for medical beds of 16; therefore the closing balance at the end of the day was four beds.

’The availability of beds at Noble’s is monitored daily by a senior team at the hospital.

’Updates on overnight admissions, planned discharges and current staffing requirements are shared and reviewed by the multi-disciplinary group to ensure resources are in place for expected demand.

’Figures collected since mid-April show there has been no bed shortage at Noble’s, with the average number of available medical beds at the start of the day and subsequent discharges from the hospital together exceeding admissions, resulting in a positive ’balance’ of beds at the end of each day.

’In addition, Noble’s has accommodated all of its planned surgery and has admitting surgical beds available too, as well as having critical care capacity in the ICU and Coronary Care wards.’

â?¢ Have you been kept waiting for a bed at Noble’s Hospital? Please let us know your experience. You can contact us at [email protected]