August 2, 2022 8.00 am This story is over 19 months old

Cancer patient waits 31 hours for bed at Lincoln County Hospital

A&E department under “increasing pressure”

A cancer patient from Lincoln had to wait 31 hours in Lincoln County Hospital to get a bed.

Tracy Summerson is immunosuppressed and has stage 4 cancer, but says she was left in a chair in the A&E waiting room along with other poorly patients.

She told BBC Look North: “There were people coming and going and people with sick bowls next to you.

“You were just crammed, you were like cattle in a market. When you’re immunosuppressed you’re supposed to go in a side room out of any germ’s way, but they needed all the rooms for consultation.”

Tracy Summerson has stage 4 cancer and is immunosurppressed but wasn’t given a germ-free room to wait in. | Screenshot: BBC Look North/BBC News Hub

John Summerson, Tracy’s husband, said: “I would say there was plus 100 people in there that evening.

“There was another gentleman who was brought in in a wheelchair and he was left in that. It transpired that he had a broken hip. I’ve been in the military for 28-plus years, and that’s the worst I’ve ever experienced in that regard.”

In a statement United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust said: “Despite long waits, patients were looked after in our emergency department.

“Increasing pressure on our A&E departments, often with patients who have more complex needs, coupled with patients staying much longer in our hospitals than previously experienced is leading to a longer wait time for beds.”

Tracy says she’d rather drive to Nottingham than risk another wait in Lincoln’s A&E.