'Climbing over people... blood on the floor': Patient waited 36 hours for treatment in A&E ordeal

The daughter of a diabetic patient who was forced to wait 36 hours for hospital treatment has described her disbelief at seeing blood on the floors and people on drips in the corridors.

The patient spent almost two days lying on the floor of his home following a fall last week.

Police called for an ambulance to take the man to hospital after finding him in desperate need of help.

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His daughter, Hannah, told Sky News he then waited 12 hours inside the ambulance to be admitted to Peterborough Hospital – before spending a further 24 hours waiting in a corridor.

Hannah told Sky News’ health correspondent, Ashish Joshi: “I can’t tell you how many ambulances there were, they just seemed to go on forever… I was walking along the side of the building and they were all queued up on both sides of the road.

“They just had so many people in A&E.

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“You walk in there and you’re climbing over people, there are people sitting there with drips on in the corridor.

“There is blood on the floor, injured people everywhere.

“I couldn’t actually believe what I was seeing.”

Peterborough Hospital told Sky News it is doing all it can to reduce waiting times in its emergency department, including redeploying more staff.

Hannah’s father’s ordeal is mirrored at hospitals across the nation as the crisis engulfing the NHS continues to deepen.

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Pensioner Koulla Mechanikos, 85, endured a 40-hour wait for treatment after falling at her home in Cornwall and breaking her hip.

She lay on the cold floor for 14 hours before an ambulance arrived – then had to wait a further 26 hours to be admitted to the Royal Cornwall Hospital, which has since apologised.

Ms Mechanikos told Sky News’ west of England correspondent, Dan Whitehead: “I would have been better to die” – as her daughter, Marianna Flint, said: “Basically, the ambulances are now waiting rooms.”

On Thursday, it was announced patients are facing the worst ambulance response times on record – with A&E waits also hitting a record high.

More than half of people at major A&Es in England are now forced to wait at least four hours for the first time since records began in 2011.

Average ambulance response times in England last month were the longest on record, with paramedics reaching patients in the most urgent cases – people with life-threatening injuries or illnesses – within 10 minutes and 57 seconds.

The target response time is seven minutes.

Around 25,000 ambulance workers across England and Wales, including paramedics, call handlers, drivers and technicians, walked out on Wednesday in an ongoing battle with the government over pay, as the NHS remains engulfed in crisis.

And more walkouts are being considered after talks with Health Secretary Steve Barclay failed to reach an agreement earlier this week.

Sky News understands the GMB union will meet ambulance representatives on Monday to discuss up to six more strike dates.

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