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Putting patients in a corridor

Posted By easton

"Putting patients in a corridor"

About: Aberdeen Royal Infirmary / Cardiology / Coronary Care Unit

(as a relative),

My husband has a loop recorder that was inserted due to turns of dizziness and blackouts . In Febuary he took a turn and it got picked up by the machine he has in the house that is connected to his loop recorder.

He was contacted a few days later by Cardiology, stating that the results from the turn he took on the Thursday are alarming and he must be admitted in immediately, and that there was a bed for him on the ward.

When arrived at the Ward we were told that his bed was a Corridor bed, directly across from the Nurses Station where the machines are bleeping all night. My husband does not like Hospitals and this started to stress him out that he would be put in the corridor. We were already stressed due to not really being told what the issue with his heart was and why he had to be admitted . We asked to talk to a doctor to explain things to us and why he would be in the corridor which is an absolute disgrace for anyone to be receiving care like this . 

It took at least 2 hours before anyone came to see him.

When they finally did, they were not nice at all, and were badgering my husband about him staying in the corridor. The tone was very aggressive in explaining why he had been placed there and my husband felt backed into the corner of the room.

My husband at this point was more stressed and started to feel unwell and that he was going to take another turn. 

I had to step in and tell the doctor to back off my husband, as their behaviour was stressing him out even more.

We decided at that point that we were leaving and going home that night.

I got my husband home he got himself calmed down and I managed to persuade him to go back to the hospital.

We went back to the hospital the following day. He never slept the whole night due to being across from the nurses station, in which they chatted and laughed the whole night, and the machines for the patients bleeped all night.

Due to the type of ward how can you justify putting patients in a corridor when the patients can get so stressed very easily and put more harm onto themselves. It is an absolute disgrace and can not go on.

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Responses

Response from Catriona Robbins, Chief Nurse, Medicine & Unscheduled Care, NHS Grampian 3 months ago
Catriona Robbins
Chief Nurse, Medicine & Unscheduled Care,
NHS Grampian

Submitted on 28/03/2025 at 09:04
Published on Care Opinion at 09:04

picture of Catriona Robbins

Dear easton,

Thank you for taking the time to send us your feedback during what has clearly been a very difficult period for you and your husband. We do appreciate all feedback, even when it is difficult to read.

Unfortunately, as an organisation we are seeing singificantly elevated numbers of hospital admissions with patients who require extended admissions. We need to use beds in spaces which were not designed for this use to enable us to maintain admitting capacity through our emergency departments and to minimise the risks held within primary care for all patients who require admission. Please be assured that as an organisation we are working hard with our colleagues across NHS Grampian to make improvements to all of our pathways to reduce this, however there is no ready solution and we will continue to require to use these spaces. Clinical teams make assessment based on clinical acuity to identify which patients are placed in these spaces. There are multiple factors including infection risk, and end of life care that influences this decision making,

I am sorry that your husband experienced this and was more stressed by this during his admission. I can appreciate how the noise from the nurses station and machines impacted on your husbands rest, the telemetry systems at the desk have specific alarms to support our patient care, I will however speak to the nurses and medical staff to remind them to be cognisant of patients who may be placed in this space and the impact the noise in the environament can have.

I have shared your feedback with the ward and medical team regarding their communication as this was clearly difficult and below the standards that I would expect and I am sorry that this was how you and your husband were made to feel.

Unfortunately, there is no indication that we will be able to stop using these bed spaces in the immediate future, however we really do try to minimise their use as much as possible. If there is anything further that you would like to discuss, I would be happy to have a conversation with you, I can be contacted on 01224 550110 if you would like to have a further conversation. Alternatively, if you want to provide further written feedback this can be sent to the NHS Grampian, complaints and feedback team.

Kind regards

Catriona

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