A patient has been left dumped in the corridor of an A&E department as Crosshouse Hospital hits crisis point.
The 19-year-old man was admitted into the unit on Tuesday night after falling ill waited almost two full days in the Ayrshire hospital for a bed.
The patient's shattered mum has told how her son was forced to spend hours on a chair in the corridor after first being admitted. He was then upgraded to a trolley where he lay in the corridor until being moved to the Combined Assessment Unit in Thursday evening.
Ayrshire Live can lift the lid on chaotic scenes within the region’s largest hospital with stunned staff admitting to the patient's mother that the hospital is ‘overflowing’.
A boss at NHS Ayrshire & Arran today apologised and said that staff are working under "extremely difficult circumstances".
The teen was eventually admitted to a ward last night.
However, the furious 44-year-old mum, who stays in Ardrossan, has told how she was unable to visit her son who is ‘vulnerable and frightened’.
The desperate parent says she has been left in disbelief after medical staff insisted her son is receiving 'the best of care'.
The mum, who did not wish to be named told Ayrshire Live: “They are telling me he is receiving the best of care. How is being left in a corridor by yourself in A&E the best of care?
“My son has never experienced anything like this in his life, he might be 19 but he’s just a boy, he’s stuck in A&E in a corridor. He’s just been left abandoned there.
“As his mum I’m desperate to go in and see him and make sure he is okay but I am being told I am not allowed to visit.
“He’s waited almost 48 hours in that corridor, the only food he’s had is a jam roll.”
The patient, who also does not wish to be named, was rushed to the unit on Tuesday night after becoming violently sick.
His mum took the decision to drive him to hospital to save waiting on an ambulance and told they arrived to 'shambolic scenes'.
She said: “When we went up on Tuesday the place was in complete chaos. People were leaving the waiting room.
“There was six ambulances parked waiting to get inside with patients.
“My son got bloods done and when he came back. We were told he would be getting kept in but kept in A&E for the night because the hospital is overflowing, that was four hours after we arrived.
“They told him he’d have to sleep on a chair for the night but they managed to get him a trolley.
“He was moved into a tiny room with another patient and then put back into the corridor. We left him at 1.30am Wednesday morning and he’s still there.
"It's a complete shambles, how can this still be happening? You would think things would have improved after Covid but they seem even worse."
NHS Ayrshire & Arran say they continue to experience high demand for unscheduled care services and that each patient is triaged on arrival.
Joanne Edwards, Director of Acute Services said: "We are aware that, unfortunately, sometimes patients have waited significantly longer than we would wish and we unreservedly apologise for that. This is not the care we aim to provide and our daily focus on discharges supports the flow of patients from our emergency departments.
"We would like to thank patients for their help and understanding as we continue to work under extremely difficult circumstances. If we all work together we can ensure that our Emergency Departments are there to look after those who need them most."
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