Hospital gives patient, 91, mattress on floor

A 91-year-old patient spent a day lying on a mattress on a hospital floor.

An inquiry is set to be launched after staff took away an experimental lowlevel bed from former landworker Cecil Baker because its trial period had ended.

He then spent a day on the mattress before staff at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital moved him back into a standard bed.

Hospital spokeswoman Hayley Gerrard said Mr Baker, who was admitted before Easter with shingles, had been put in the low-level bed because he was "prone to falling out of a standard bed".

However, she said that when the trial ended and because the bed was considered unsuitable for him "for nursingreasons" he was put on the mattress.

Mrs Gerrard added that Mr Baker spent a day on the floor since it was considered safer than putting him back in a conventional bed, which did not have sufficient side protection to prevent him falling out.