A shocking image shows a terminally ill woman forced to sleep on the floor of a hospital due to a lack of beds.
Madeleine Butcher, 62, was taken to hospital around 3am on Sunday by her husband John, 61, and was told she was probably suffering from sepsis.
Despite the prognosis, Madeleine (who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2022) was told she would have to wait in the emergency room for potentially 36 hours.
She explained that sitting for longer periods of time was uncomfortable due to a hernia due to her hysterectomy and the position of her tumor.
But despite asking if there was a bed, stroller or even a recliner she could use, she was told there was nothing available.
Madeleine Butcher, 62, who has terminal cancer, was forced to lie on the floor in A&E as she awaited treatment for a suspected sepsis infection because she felt too uncomfortable to sit in a chair in the unit at Blackpool’s Victoria Hospital.
John Butler, 61, pictured with his wife Madeleine, 61, took a picture of his wife on the floor because he was outraged at the treatment she was receiving. He said it took nurses 30 minutes to get a stretcher for his wife. She spent about 36 hours in A&E before being admitted to a ward.
Her husband, John, said the doctor gave her a blanket and pillow so she could lie on the floor at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
John, a garden center worker from Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, said: “I was absolutely horrified.
‘I didn’t realize how angry I was until I got home and looked at the photo of her on the floor.
“How is that acceptable in this day and age? A terminally ill patient lying on the floor?
“I still can’t get over the fact that a doctor thought it was acceptable for her to be lying on the floor for so long.”
John took his wife to the hospital around 3 a.m. on Sunday because she was suffering from symptoms of an infection.
He had blood tests about 30 minutes after arriving and saw a doctor about three and a half hours later, who agreed it was likely sepsis.
John says the nurses took action once they saw his wife on the floor and managed to get her a stroller within half an hour.
But it was not until Wednesday night that she was admitted to a room.
And the incident has left him angry because he believes the situation could have been resolved immediately.
He added: “The nurses got her a trolley half an hour after seeing her on the floor, so I think there must have been trolleys available at that time.”
Madeleine Butcher, a 61-year-old terminally ill cancer patient, was left on the floor of the emergency department at Blackpool’s Victoria Hospital with only a blanket and a pillow after staff said there were no beds available.
‘It’s not ideal, but at least a stroller is more comfortable than the floor or emergency chairs.
‘The hallways weren’t that crowded, they weren’t that busy from what I could see, but I also couldn’t see how understaffed they were.
“When they put pressure on you, you make mistakes and I feel like they must have been under a lot of pressure.”
‘One of the doctors described A&E as a war zone, so I understand why some people might struggle in that situation.
‘I feel the problems go back decades under successive governments, all the way back to Margaret Thatcher and nothing has really improved since then.
‘We have this creeping privatisation of the NHS and it’s not right.
‘The fact that you can go to a private hospital to get treatment quicker than on the NHS and often see the same doctors is not right.
“There are not enough nurses and not enough beds.”
Madeleine, a mother of two, currently on sick leave from her job as a legal cashier, remains in hospital while receiving treatment for sepsis.
It is a condition she has often suffered from since being diagnosed with cancer and often spends 10 to 14 days in hospital for treatment.
John said he is frustrated with the system and how difficult it is for his wife to get the treatment she needs when the system gets worse.
He said: “Some staff are fantastic, but the systems just don’t seem set up to cope with how busy they are.”
‘The annoying thing from our point of view is that we know exactly what is wrong, but we always have to go through the process of evaluation and waiting.
‘Even if oncology calls and says she needs to be admitted, you still have to go through the ER and listen to drunks. It’s not a good place to go.
Madeleine underwent a complete hysterectomy about 18 months ago and was expected to recover from the cancer after the operation.
But unfortunately, the disease had spread further and she was later told she had terminal endometrial cancer.
John said: ‘It’s always the same routine. You call 111 and they tell you to go to A&E.
‘You go to the ER and wait a bit before going to an evaluation area.
‘You’re usually in the hospital for about 10 days before you come out again after receiving antibiotics, an IV, fluids and other things to reduce infection levels.
“We have had excellent care, mediocre care and bad care. Sometimes the system can’t cope, and I’m not convinced it’s as simple as throwing money at it.”
Marie Forshaw, acting executive director for nursing, midwifery, allied health professionals and quality at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘We have received a formal complaint about Ms Butcher’s care in the Accident and Emergency department.
‘I would like to thank you for coming forward and I am very sorry that the quality of care you received did not meet the high standards our patients should expect.
“Any complaint we receive is thoroughly reviewed so that we can understand the situation and implement any necessary improvements.”
Commenting on the case, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘This is what the Tories have done to our NHS and it is a disgrace.
‘Rishi Sunak should have the decency to apologise to this poor woman.
“The NHS is crying out for change, and only the Labor Party has a plan to deliver it.”
NHS England data revealed that 54,000 patients spent more than 48 hours in A&E and nearly 19,000 the equivalent of three days, many of them without even a trolley.
Waits of more than 12 hours for emergency care have increased 100-fold since 2019, and 40 percent of patients wait much longer than four hours to be discharged, transferred or admitted.
This comes after A&E nurses were caught on video laughing about how they were failing to meet targets after admitting one of their patients had already waited 46 hours for care.
The shocking state of NHS care was laid bare after a Channel 4 Dispatches reporter infiltrated the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital emergency room, posing as a healthcare assistant in training.