Milburn: Standard report is 'fiction'

A second elderly patient was left unwashed for five days in the London casualty department of Whittington Hospital, it was claimed today. Sidney Hockley, 88, spent more than 120 hours in the accident and emergency department at the north London hospital in a "horrendous state", according to relatives.

The story emerged as Health Secretary Alan Milburn tried to deny the hospital had a problem with bed shortages. Mr Milburn went on the BBC's Today programme to denounce the report in the Evening Standard yesterday which described the plight of 94-year-old Rose Addis, who spent three days next to Mr Hockley in the same casualty department, caked in blood.

Mr Milburn described the account as "fiction", saying that on the basis of information he had received from the hospital's chief executive, Trevor Campbell Davis, "she was not abandoned in casualty, she didn't wait three days for an NHS bed, she was not left caked in blood". Mr Campbell Davis said: "If the doctors had thought it appropriate Mrs Addis would have been admitted directly to a ward when she arrived on Sunday. Beds were available but staff judged it appropriate that she be kept in observation for her own good."

Mr Milburn said: "When we are dealing with these problems, let's talk fact, not fiction." But the situation faced by Mrs Addis was supported by an account from Mr Hockley's niece, Lesley, who contacted the Evening Standard after reading our report yesterday. She says staff told her that her uncle could not be moved to a ward because of a shortage of beds.

After suffering a fall at his Islington home on Saturday, Mr Hockley was placed in a small observation ward next to casualty. There he found himself alongside Mrs Addis and he ended up staying in the four-bed bay for five days without being washed or changed, despite being covered in excrement and vomit since his admission, according to his niece.

He was finally moved following a complaint from his furious family, who also claim he was not fed for more than 24 hours after his arrival. Miss Hockley, 38, said: "We are completely shocked at the way he has been treated. It was horrific for him and completely inhumane.

"After his fall he had suffered from diarrhoea and he had been sick and so he was in a pretty horrendous state. But staff did not wash him or change his clothes even though he was there for five days.

"The day he arrived they lost his glasses which made him even more confused than he already was. He was very dehydrated and staff did not even feed him."

She added: "Just because people are old and vulnerable does not mean they can treat them like this."

Mr Hockley was taken to hospital by ambulance with his niece at about 2.30pm on Saturday 12 January - the day before Mrs Addis's arrival.

He was lined up alongside six patients near the main reception area where he remained for more than eight hours before he was transferred to a temporary cubicle for the first night, claimed Miss Hockley.

She said: "It was unorganised from the moment we arrived. He wasn't washed or fed or seen by a doctor."

The following day, Miss Hockley was informed that due to the shortage of beds, he would be temporarily placed in a bay next to A&E.

It was there he remained, in the same clothes and still unwashed, until Wednesday. Miss Hockley, from Woodford Green, Essex, who plans to make a formal complaint to the hospital today, added: "It was a tiny room with four beds. He had had nothing to eat or drink since he arrived and he was still wearing the same clothes.

"The emergency doctor was called that day because his blood pressure had fallen dangerously low and he was put on a drip. He stayed there, in the same clothes and in a dreadful state, until the following Wednesday when he was finally found a bed. We went absolutely mad and complained. I just could not believe it. It was so inhumane to treat him that way."

She added: "He was a healthy 88-yearold a few weeks ago but he looks worse now than he did when he was brought in. The worse thing is that there was another elderly man in the same room.

"He was there when we arrived and was still there when he (Mr Hockley) left but he had no family to complain about his situation."

A spokeswoman for the hospital said: "Mr Hockley was seen and treated by the medical staff throughout his stay on the ward and his nursing notes record appropriate observations and care. In particular, the notes record the attention paid to the management of Mr Hockley's care and personal hygiene."

Mr Hockley's family dispute this and the hospital said it would continue to investigate their complaints today. The Evening Standard has requested to see the bay, which relatives say is cramped and without washing facilities.

Meanwhile, the family of Rose Addis today stood by their claims - and said they had spent several hours trying to contact Mr Milburn about their complaints.

Jason Gold, Mrs Addis's grandson, said: "We tried to contact Alan Milburn's office yesterday about this issue but got passed from pillar to post and didn't get anywhere. We stand by everything that appeared in the Evening Standard article. The level of care in A&E is appalling and my grandmother was treated appallingly."

Mr Gold and his mother Zena, Rose's daughter, are making a formal complaint to the hospital. Zena Gold has contacted her local MP, Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, about the issue.

The family are also planning to ask Mrs Addis's MP, Jeremy Corbyn, to take up their case. Mr Gold added: "I work as a photo-journalist and have been in hospitals in Yugoslavia, at the height of sanctions, where people were given more dignity than my grandmother."

The hospital's statement
The NHS reality