Pensioner waited 10 hours on A&E trolley

The family of Gwen Harris, 87, say she became “distressed” after being taken to Doncaster Royal Infirmary at 1pm last Wednesday, April 17, and having to wait until 11pm before a bed was found.

This is more than double the four-hour target time set by the NHS for finding patients a bed.

Mrs Harris’s brother-in-law Peter Gumsley said: “The staff were absolutely wonderful, but the place just couldn’t cope.

“I have nothing but praise for what the staff on the ground have tried to do in what were impossible circumstances for them.

“However, quite clearly they’re being put in an impossible situation when they haven’t got any beds.”

A spokesman for Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS Foundation Trust said that the hospital had been coping with a “significantly increased” number of seriously ill emergency patients recently, which meant that a bed on a ward wasn’t immediately available.

They added: “It was felt more appropriate for the patient’s comfort and her clinical condition to keep her in the emergency department (ED) and admit her to a bed on the ED rather than transfer her to one of our other hospital sites.

“She was admitted to a ward at DRI as soon as a bed became available.

“We acknowledge that it would have been preferable if the patient could have been transferred to a ward sooner.

“However, the decision to place her in a bed in the ED, rather than transferring her to another site, was in her best interests at that time.”