An NHS hospital crippled by flu threatened to charge a pensioner £582 a night if she refused to give up her bed to another patient.
A “stunned” visitor to the ward told how a group of four hospital staff “surrounded” the woman and tried to intimidate her into leaving.
She is understood to have emphysema and a chest infection, “looked like she weighed 5 stone” and said she lived alone.
Despite pleas to give her time to arrange care and transport, workers at The Princess Royal, in Orpington, Kent, told her she must pay or leave.
Today, patient groups are criticizing the “strong-arm tactics” used to free up beds and described the behavior of hospital staff as “callous”.
A hospital spokesperson has since apologized for any “confusion or distress caused” and admitted staff were wrong to suggest the patient would be charged.
It comes as the NHS struggles to cope with a surge in demand amid falling temperatures and a major flu outbreak.
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which runs The Princess Royal, has seen the number of beds occupied by flu patients quadruple over the past month.
Despite pleas to give her time to arrange care and transport, workers at The Princess Royal, in Orpington, Kent (pictured), told her she must pay or leave.
The latest figures from NHS England show that the Trust had an average of 52 beds a day occupied with flu patients in the last week of December, up from just 12 the previous month.
He has also had problems with bed blockers.
The Mail reported earlier this month how the equivalent of 26 hospitals a day are filled with patients who are medically fit to be discharged but cannot leave, often due to delays in getting a place in a care home or in organizing care in the patient’s own home.
The crisis is costing the NHS around £2 billion a year.
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust had an average of 88 bed blockers per night throughout December, up from 82 in November.
On a typical day last month, 202 patients were considered ready to be discharged, but only 114 left their beds, a discharge rate of just 56 percent.
A lack of available beds is hampering efforts to admit new patients to the Trust, with more than one in four ambulances (27 per cent) taking more than 30 minutes to deliver patients to A&E over Christmas and New Year.
Dennis Reed, director of Silver Voices, which campaigns for elderly patients, said: “A frail, sick elderly lady, with no social care at home, threatened with a huge fine if she doesn’t leave her bed,” says all about the critical state of the NHS and the lack of empathy of some hospital managers.
‘This insensitive behavior at a Trust may be the tip of the iceberg in terms of heavy-handed tactics being used to free up hospital beds.
“Ultimately, the responsibility falls again on the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who has left welfare reform behind, ensuring that many more elderly patients will be forced to return home to non-white people. existing support available to assist in your recovery.
“Instead of being ‘shamed’, Wes Streeting should act to prevent future bully tactics.”
A spokesperson for the Trust told the Mail: ‘Yesterday, when speaking to a patient suitable for discharge about their hospital stay, staff incorrectly suggested that the patient would be charged the current cost of their hospital bed.
‘We can confirm that this is not the case at all and we would like to apologize for any confusion or distress caused.
“Like other hospitals, charging patients would only be considered a potential option in very rare and exceptional circumstances, and in cases where a patient with no further medical needs has repeatedly, and for an agreed period of time, refused to leave the hospital, despite being well enough to do so and having adequate support mechanisms for continued care.