‘NHS left my daughter alone in A&E for seven hours having seizures’

Asenior midwife has said she is “disgusted” at the NHS care her daughter received and that she was forced to step in and tend to other patients herself during recent visits to an A&E department.

Donna Ockenden, who has led government-commissioned reviews into patient safety, said Phoebe, her 20-year-old daughter who has epilepsy, was “failed” by A&E staff at one department.

She said her daughter, who has learning disabilities, was left in a waiting room by staff for seven hours while still having seizures after she was transferred to hospital in an ambulance.

She said: “It was Phoebe’s third attendance in A&E in the last weeks. During the first two [visits] I was with her and I was her advocate. It was still pretty rubbish … but for the third I was in Dubai on holiday and woke up to messages about Phoebe being in A&E.

“Despite her learning disabilities and being known to the service she was dropped off in the waiting room on her own. She is 20 but she is really vulnerable, and was left in a chair for seven hours, still having some seizures.

“Initially she was left in the waiting area on her own. It’s just unspeakable, it’s absolutely disgusting and disgraceful.”

Ockenden, who led inquiries into NHS maternity scandals at Shrewsbury and Nottingham hospital trusts, said her daughter was only “just about kept safe” during her first two A&E visits because she was with her.

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Source: The Times, 31 October 2024