Shocking footage shows dozens of patients lining corridors of an A&E department after a concerned visitor posted the clip online.
The video at Royal Stoke University Hospital in Staffordshire on Monday, September 11, shows elderly patients left in corridors.
It was uploaded by Toni Prince, from Stoke, who was walking through the hospital with her sister, who was waiting to be seen.
The footage shows Miss Prince trying to walk down a busy corridor with patients, their friends and relatives, as well as hospital and ambulance staff coming through.
Miss Prince, who spent about seven hours waiting for her sister, shot the video in two parts with the second recorded over 30 minutes after the first.
Patients lined the corridor at the hospital in Staffordshire in scenes that were uploaded to Facebook
Footage shows Miss Prince trying to walk down a busy corridor with patients, their friends and relatives crowding the corridor
The 25-year-old mother-of-one said there were so many patients lining the corridors she struggled to get through.
‘It was heart wrenching walking through and seeing that many people in this situation,’ she said.
Staff were seen trying to move down the corridor where elderly patients were left waiting
‘There has got to have been above 50 or 60 (patients) in just the corridors I saw but then there was more in other corridors.
‘The corridors were full. They even stopped us from going through at one point.
‘They were doing blood pressures on patients in the corridors and everything.
‘Elderly people weren’t covered up properly. It wasn’t very dignified at all.’
‘The corridors were full. They even stopped us from going through at one point,’ said Miss Prince who uploaded the video
The clip has been viewed over 21,000 times after she uploaded it onto Facebook to highlight the situation hospitals are facing across the country.
She said the corridors were still crowded when she and her sister left the hospital.
‘Personally I blame the government for the NHS cuts,’ she said.
‘We need more funding not just for more beds but for more staff doctors and nurses maybe even expand the hospital and A&E. We as human beings deserve to be treated better.’
‘It’s okay for the government. They can afford to live the life of luxury and pay for private health care but that’s not the case for some citizens.
The clip has been viewed over 21,000 times after Miss Prince uploaded it onto Facebook to highlight the situation hospitals are facing across the country
‘It’s heartbreaking to see how people can be treated, it was like they had just been forgotten about.’
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, who run Royal Stoke, said the maximum number of patients who could have been on the corridor was 20 because of the size of the area.
Miss Prince said it was heartbreaking to see people left in the corridor and herself spent seven hours in the hospital with her sister
Chief Executive Paula Clark said: ‘There can be exceptional spikes in demand for our services and during these times people do experience long waits to be admitted, which nobody wants to see.
‘This is why we are in the process of creating 45 additional beds at Royal Stoke and introducing a new way of working called “hospital at night”, to ensure that the service runs as efficiently as night as it does during the day.
‘We would like to thank patients and their relatives for their on-going support during busy periods and continue to ask the public to use alternatives to A&E wherever possible.’