A dad was left stunned after he was given a bed in a hospital TOILET as he waited for his operation.
Darren Walters was called into hospital at short notice after doctors brought his haemorrhoids op forward last week.
When he arrived at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, salesman Darren, 36, says he was tagged with the wrong name and the consultant began preparing him for someone else’s operation.
Once the error was realised his operation was delayed.
But, with nowhere else to put him, the hospital made up a bed.
And, due to the NHS beds crisis, Darren was stunned to discover it was in the toilet and shower room of a ward.
With a mattress wedged under the shower, dad-of-three Darren had to wait in the tiny room for four hours before his operation. To add insult to injury, with the enema he had just had taking its course, he was forced to repeatedly use the loo just a foot from his pillow.
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Despite the situation Darren insists he does not blame staff at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, West Yorks.
Instead he says it is down to the resources that have been stripped from the NHS by coalition government cuts.
Darren said: “I took pictures and sent them to my wife who told me to get out of there but I didn’t want to leave and end up at the back of the queue again for my operation.
“I went in because I was told there was a cancellation but they weren’t ready for me. First they thought I was another patient, then they knocked me up a bed in the loo.
“The hospital said they were doing the best they could but how is sticking someone in a toilet the best for anyone.
“No-one on the ward could shower or use the loo while I was in there.
“People need to realise what a state the NHS is in. It’s not the staff’s fault. They do a brilliant job with what they have to work with.
“It comes down to the money that is not there anymore. That makes the difference.”
After his operation, Darren, of Todmorden, waited in the recovery room until an actual bed became free on another ward. He was discharged hours later on Friday night.
Jackie Murphy, Deputy Director of Nursing for the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have been in touch with Mr Walters to apologise unreservedly.
“We are investigating the circumstances to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
