A woman whose terminally ill dad sat in a waiting room for up to 25 hours says it felt like he was being tortured by “a broken system”.
Paul Hillman, 58, was diagnosed with stage three gallbladder cancer in April 2022 and his chemotherapy left him with a weakened immune system.
But he was frequently left waiting for hours in busy A&E departments, surrounded by patients who were coughing or being sick.
Paul’s daughter Beth Hillman, 31, said: “Dad would be crammed into tiny rooms with people coughing with chest infections or Covid. He wasn’t given any protection.
“I’d hate to think about if he had caught something in his lungs – his immune system was so weakened from the chemo.”
Beth described some of the episodes spent sitting with her skeletal, terminally ill father in waiting rooms.
On one occasion, he sat on cold hard chairs while being sick overnight – and it took 25 hours for staff to find him a proper bed. Another time he was waiting in a chair for 15 hours.
Beth said: “He was shivering, in pain and throwing up – and he couldn’t even have a proper blanket or nearby toilet. There is no privacy or dignity in these situations.”
A damning report from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has laid bare the scale of corridor care in the NHS and the consequences for patients’ dignity.
RCN general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger said “chair care” was also a huge problem.
She warned: “If that patient deteriorates, what any nurse has got to be able to do is start CPR and resuscitate someone. You cannot do that sitting in a chair.”
The RCN’s survey of more than 5,000 nurses found that nine in ten believed patient safety was being compromised.
Paul, from Penge in south east London, died at home in March 2024. During his hospital visits, Beth feared her dad would catch an infection that could prove fatal.
Beth said the harrowing testimony in the RCN report came as no surprise – and should lead to change.
She added: “I can’t imagine how dad, or any other sick person, would feel to be sat in a waiting room knowing they would die soon, feeling unwell and enduring that torture.
“This situation needs to change – it might not seem like a big deal until it’s someone you love sat there on a wooden chair.
“There will be so many more people dying in their hands if we don’t fix this broken system.”