A WOMAN from Meliden has told of the 35-hour wait her grandmother endured in the Emergency Department (ED) at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, Bodelwyddan last weekend.

Chelsea Clark, 24, took Dawn Sharpe, 61, to the hospital’s ED on Saturday (October 22), with her grandmother later found to have a blood clot in her leg and pneumonia.

Dawn, also from Meliden, had previously suffered from sepsis and meningitis, which had also led to kidney disease.

While Chelsea sympathised with members of staff at the hospital, she pleaded with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) to take further action to prevent such episodes from re-occurring.

Dawn was then discharged from hospital yesterday evening (October 26).

Rhyl Journal: Dawn Sharpe during her wait in Glan Clwyd.Dawn Sharpe during her wait in Glan Clwyd. (Image: Chelsea Clark)

Chelsea said: “I took her to A&E as she’d been wheezing for a couple of days, her chest sounded awful, and she’d been constipated for a week.

“She got triaged really quickly and had her bloods done within about an hour, but after that, it all went downhill.

“For the first 12 hours, she was sat on a chair in the waiting room itself at the front of the ED, and then after that, she was sat on a chair in a corridor.

“Whether they felt we’d be happier in a corridor, I don’t know. It was at least 35 hours (until she was found a bed). The staff were so nice and kind; however, (there were) no beds.

“She couldn’t clean herself in A&E, which was obviously distressing in itself. I was having to bring in wipes and clean clothes into the hospital with me, and assist her to the toilet.

“She’s still got pneumonia, but they released her on the basis that she’s had something in her arm ready to start dialysis – they’ve got to wait for the pneumonia to clear up.”

Rhyl Journal: Dawn Sharpe during her wait in Glan ClwydDawn Sharpe during her wait in Glan Clwyd (Image: Newsquest)

Of the time her grandmother spent waiting for a hospital bed, Chelsea said she accompanied her from approximately 12pm on Saturday until 2am on Sunday, then from 9am until 8pm on Sunday, and then on Monday evening after finishing work.

Whenever she was not at the hospital with her, though, Chelsea’s mother was with Dawn.

Chelsea added: “I raised my concerns about my grandma being sat there to a nurse working in the ED, who just said: ‘She’ll be fine, you’ll just have to leave her to it’.

“My mum was with me at the time, and we both just looked at each other – you want to turn around and shout, but you can’t because you’re going to cry if you do. She just came across as very abrupt.

“We’ve contacted Betsi directly as well. Obviously, a large amount of staff are incredibly stressed, which I understand; it's more that the health board are not giving staff what they need.

“I’ve had a phone call from a head of department, who was upset that my grandma and I felt like this, and that they are trying to make improvements.

“It would just be nice for Betsi to formally release a statement on what they intend to do. Whether it’s a five- or 10-year plan, they need to make progress.”

Chelsea also called for progress to made regarding the construction of a new community hospital, set to be built next to the existing Royal Alexandra Hospital in Rhyl.

This has been in the works for almost a decade, and Chelsea believes that its eventual opening will ease the strain on overworked members of staff at hospitals like Glan Clwyd.

She added: “I guess ambulance waiting times aren’t helping them, but even the new community hospital, which has been in the works for such a long time, would take off some pressure from Glan Clwyd.

“It just doesn’t seem like Betsi are doing as much as they could do as a health board. I feel frustrated for the staff at Glan Clwyd, because it can’t be nice having to see these people in corridors.

“You go into that profession because you want to help people, but they’re not being given the facilities to help those people; not as well as they should be able to, anyway.

“I just don’t think they have the time to go around and give patients the care that they should be giving.

“She said she’d been contacted by the head of nursing, who apologised and said that, obviously, that’s not the type of patient care that she wants to happen, which was really nice, and she gave my grandma a number to contact if she thinks of anything else.

“I’m glad that she’s home, but I just feel angry at Welsh Government that this is acceptable in Wales.

“It doesn’t sit right with me at all. I wish it was an isolated event, but it’s obviously very clearly not.”

Earlier this month, the Journal visited the ED at Glan Clwyd, and was shown first-hand the multiple changes staff have made following damning reports by Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) earlier this year.

READ MORE:

Life in A&E at Glan Clwyd Hospital after scathing reports and ‘two years of hell’

Health Board ‘unreservedly’ sorry for letting Glan Clwyd patients down

NHS: Welsh Government accused of 'failing' North Wales over Ysbyty Glan Clwyd

And though “targeted intervention” measures were introduced at the hospital, one staff member told the Journal of the drastic improvement in atmosphere, calling targeted intervention “probably the best thing that’s ever happened” to Glan Clwyd.

In response to Chelsea’s comments, Libby Ryan-Davies, integrated health community director (central) at BCUHB, apologised for the stress that Dawn’s wait caused her and her family.

She said: “The ED at Glan Clwyd Hospital has been extremely busy in recent days, resulting in much longer waiting times than we would like, despite the best efforts of our nursing and medical staff.

“I apologise to Mrs Sharpe, and others who have faced long waits for treatment.

“There is a detailed programme of improvement work underway at the hospital’s ED and, whilst the department remains extremely busy, new pathways and ways of delivering services are helping to improve the flow of patients.

“This includes the introduction of a new Same Day Emergency Care Centre, which is enabling patients to receive care away from the ED, where clinically appropriate.

“Further planned improvements include the introduction of an Urgent Primary Care Centre, which will help to reduce unnecessary attendances at the ED, releasing staff capacity to care for the most seriously injured and unwell patients.

“Despite this work, increasing demand for services and ongoing pressures on the NHS workforce will mean that the hospital’s ED will remain under significant pressure during the coming winter months.

“We urge the public to help us; patients who do not need full emergency hospital treatment may find that they can get appropriate advice and care from other NHS services, including minor injuries and local pharmacies.

“Please visit the BCUHB website if you are unsure where to go.”

The MS of Vale of Clwyd, Gareth Davies, having been made aware of Dawn's wait in the ED, raised the matter in the Senedd on Tuesday (October 25).

Mr Davies called for an urgent statement from the health minister, Eluned Morgan, regarding waiting times at Glan Clwyd.

He said: "Could I ask for an urgent statement from the health minister this afternoon on waiting times in Glan Clwyd Hospital in Bodelwyddan?

"I have been contacted overnight by Chelsea Clark, from Meliden, whose grandmother has been sat in A&E for 35 hours - 35 hours in a dirty corridor with a blood clot in her leg, pneumonia, and has previously had sepsis and meningitis, which has caused kidney disease?

"This is a live case which is causing much distress to the patient and her family, and something needs to be done, as we see all too often cases such as this.

"So, I'd like an urgent statement from the Welsh Government this afternoon detailing what mechanisms they're going to use to bring the health board to account on these problems.

"And, failing this, will the Welsh Government accept that they've completely lost control of health services in North Wales?

"My constituents need answers, and they need them now."

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We cannot comment on individual cases, but we understand how distressing this must have been for Mrs Sharpe and her family.

“We have launched a national programme to support the transformation of urgent and emergency care services across Wales, supported with £25million of additional funding each year, with BCUHB receiving just under £3m.

“The health board is also receiving additional support to enable improvement, as part of a targeted intervention at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd for urgent and emergency care services.

“We have also committed £1bn this Senedd term to help the NHS recover from the pandemic and to treat people as quickly as possible.”

Dr James Davies, Vale of Clwyd MS, added: "This is yet another very concerning account of local NHS provision, which I have taken up with the health board. I hope Dawn is now feeling much better.

"Once again, I call on the Welsh Government to release funding to allow the long-planned new Royal Alex to proceed.

"This will reduce some of the pressure on Glan Clwyd's Emergency Department."