A woman says she was left in agony on a hospital floor for seven hours after almost collapsing while out shopping.
Tammi Radcliffe, 31, almost collapsed from a burst of excruciating stomach pain while picking up groceries in ASDA. She called an ambulance, was given IV paracetamol, and was taken to Royal Preston Hospital in Lancashire, arriving at about 4 pm on Saturday.
Tammi says she was triaged and then left in the waiting room for hours, never seen by a doctor, and ended up lying on the floor in severe pain because there were no beds available. She says her temperature soared to 39°C, yet she wasn’t given stronger fever medication until almost 9 pm.
Seven hours after she arrived, Tammi finally saw a doctor, who couldn’t give her a diagnosis but prescribed IV antibiotics. She says she didn’t actually receive them until 2.30 am, and they were given through her cannula while she was still lying on the hospital corridor floor.
Tammi, an administrator from South Lakes, Cumbria, said she’d never experienced pain so intense, despite normally downplaying how she feels. She said she was crying and doubled over in agony in the waiting room, unable to hide it, and was begging for pain relief as she lay there suffering.
Tammi said she initially assumed the pain was just trapped wind that would pass. She explained: “I’d had cramps all morning, but I just put it down to trapped wind.”
She said she’d only gone to ASDA for paracetamol and some Rennies or Windies, thinking it was just trapped wind. But as she walked around, the pain suddenly intensified. Her vision began to fade, the light dimmed, and she felt extremely light‑headed, as though she was about to pass out.
She said she went to the pharmacy, told staff she was alone and didn’t know what to do, and they sat her down, called an ambulance, and stayed with her as the pain worsened and she cried.
The ambulance took Tammi to Royal Preston Hospital, where her worried husband, Corey, 36, met her, and he said he asked for more pain relief at least six times in two hours, yet staff often didn’t acknowledge him.
Corey said he kept asking for Tammi to be reassessed and re‑triaged, but staff repeatedly told him she’d already been triaged and to sit down, leaving her so exhausted and unwell that she lay on the A&E floor under a wheelchair to escape the bright lights.
Corey said her temperature wasn’t checked for hours, and when it finally was, it had risen to 39°C and she was shaking, and although more morphine eventually arrived, he later had to ask for her temperature to be taken again in case it had climbed further, saying there was a complete lack of observations.
Corey said her blood tests showed sharply raised infection markers, yet despite how unwell she was, it still took around seven hours for her to see a doctor at 11 pm, and although she was prescribed antibiotics then, she didn’t receive them until 2.30 am.
Tammi received her IV antibiotics through a cannula while lying on the floor, and Corey said the department wasn’t even particularly busy, with spare seats available, so he couldn’t understand why everything took so long.
Tammi was moved to a treatment room on the gynaecology ward at around 3 am and ultimately left the hospital on August 16 without a diagnosis, saying doctors weren’t certain what was causing her pain because she still needed swabs and an ultrasound scan.
Public reaction has centred on people’s comments about the ordeal, with many expressing shock at how long Tammi was left waiting.
Hospitals have become appalling, with patients now ending up lying on A&E floors.
No human being should ever be subjected to treatment like this.
We are not living in the dark ages anymore, and people should not be treated like this.
Things should be getting better, not worse, and the NHS is clearly struggling with staffing pressures that are affecting patient care.
It is now taking more than 24 hours for patients to get beds on wards, and many patients are now being sent home simply because there aren’t enough beds available.
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