An 81-year-old woman with terminal cancer was forced to sleep on chairs in a hospital storeroom for 48 hours, an ordeal that exposes the indignity of Britain's A&E crisis.
Pam Smith, who has stage four cancer, was taken to Royal Gwent Hospital in south Wales with a fever after chemotherapy, but was told no beds were available. She says she felt abandoned.
MPs hear allegations of hidden patients
MPs have now heard disturbing allegations that hospitals are hiding patients on plastic chairs to keep them out of official corridor-care figures. If true, it is an appalling betrayal of patients already suffering enough.
Labour deserves recognition for finally measuring corridor care after years of deterioration under the Conservatives. Its commitment to ending the practice is welcome. But figures become meaningless if hospitals can improve them simply by moving patients out of sight.
Pressure on doctors and nurses
Doctors and nurses are working under intolerable pressure, while failures in social care leave hospital beds occupied by people fit for discharge. The Government must confront those problems urgently.
Patients deserve proper treatment, dignity and compassion. They should never become inconvenient statistics to be hidden away.
