He spoke out after The Press revealed that no fewer than 1,421 patients were kept waiting at the A&E unit for 12 hours or more in just one month recently.
York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs York Hospital, said the time in which patients are seen depends on the urgency and the nature of the treatment needed, adding that staff are “working exceptionally hard in the most difficult of circumstances”.
The man, who wanted to remain anonymous, told The Press he took his 53-year-old wife to the hospital after they returned from a holiday to Spain and her legs had swollen up.
This happened on the flight home to Leeds Bradford Airport on Friday, July 12, he explained, and was not an issue while abroad.
York Hospital (Image: Supplied)
The 56-year-old, from Fulford, said his wife has long Covid and is also dealing with health issues following a stroke.
They arrived home from the airport at about 1am, he said, but the swelling had not gone down so they decided to have it checked by a doctor.
And so, they went straight to York hospital, arriving at about 2am on Saturday, July 13.
The man said his wife was seen by a nurse within the first hour at the hospital, then had blood tests done shortly after.
She was seen by a doctor at about 1pm that day – about 11 hours after arriving then waited over the next three hours for X-Rays before being discharged at 4pm, her husband said.
The swelling has since gone down.
An elderly woman was in the waiting room when the couple arrived at A&E in the early hours of July 13, the man said.
The woman had been there since 4pm on July 12, the man explained, after being driven to hospital by her husband on advice from her GP concerning her heart.
She was not seen by a doctor until about 3pm the following day (July 13) – meaning she waited for 23 hours, the man claimed.
‘Staff work as hard as they can but they’re up against it’
The man described staff at the hospital as “lovely” but said external factors facing the NHS means “their hands are tied”.
“The staff are wonderful; they work as hard as they can but they’re up against it,” he said.
A York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said York Hospital – like others across the country – continues to face challenges in urgent and emergency care “with no indication that demand is reducing, and acuity remains high”.
“When people attend the emergency department, we conduct a preliminary assessment to determine the urgency of their need for treatment and the nature of treatment required,” they said. “This helps us prioritise patients based on clinical urgency, so that we see the most seriously unwell people first. We recognise this means some patients spend longer in the emergency department and we are sorry for this.”
The spokesperson added that the hospital continues to work with its parents to ensure that “only those patients who need acute care are in hospital”.
“We need to make sure that patients who are fit to leave the hospital are discharged safely and can recover in the right place, with the right support.”
