9:56am Tuesday 10th January 2006
By Paul Leat
A RETIRED bookshop owner who severely cut two fingers was forced to sit for a total of 27 hours in a waiting room over three days for treatment at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
John Rivett, of Burton Lane, Monks Risborough, travelled to the hospital on Tuesday, December 27, but was not treated until Friday having spent three days waiting.
Mr Rivett said hospital staff, including doctors and surgeons, advised him to contact the Free Press to highlight the problems they are having.
He said: "They are really fed-up and urged me to go to the press. I don't know what the problem is there but my ordeal was ridiculous. If it wasn't true it could be part of a novel."
The cut to Mr Rivett's hand was seen on Tuesday afternoon by a nurse from the A&E department, who advised him to wait for a plastic surgeon to examine the injury as she suspected tendon damage.
Three hours later a surgeon saw Mr Rivett and advised him to return in the morning.
On Wednesday he arrived at ward six, the plastic surgery department and was directed to the waiting room. Eight hours later Mr Rivett still had not been treated and had not eaten anything all day.
He said: "The waiting room is pleasant enough but after so long you become restless. I thought it was a bit ominous when a few people either went home or were sent home without treatment."
At 8pm a doctor advised Mr Rivett to return the following day, and he duly arrived again at ward six on Thursday with his hand still in the same dressing originally applied in A&E two days prior.
He was asked to wait in the waiting room again, and despite being visited by several staff and asked to fill out forms, he was still not treated.
Mr Rivett said: "At 7pm a surgeon said he would be operating on my hand at 9pm, but an hour later he came over very apologetically and asked if I could come back in the morning."
On Friday, having spent 27 hours over three days in the waiting room, Mr Rivett was finally treated and discharged that night. Mr Rivett, a diabetic, said: "I am not a young man and I should not have been treated like this. Had I been working I would have lost three days' work but I have the time to wait. What bothers me is the cost to the NHS for me to just sit and wait."
A hospital spokesman said: "During Christmas and new year, we often see more patients with severe cuts than at other times of the year, largely because of an increase in accidents, many alcohol related.
"Our plastic and general surgeons have been extremely busy dealing with these types of injuries, and subsequently have had to assess patients according to their clinical need.
"Furthermore, the hospital has dealt with several patients with major trauma injuries during this time. Our surgeons must therefore prioritise patients according to need, putting the most life threatening of injuries first.
"Because of this, regrettably this patient's treatment was delayed, and we apologise for any distress this may have caused."
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