Nurse 'ashamed' of bodies left on trollies

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The pressures on Britain's hospitals were in the spotlight again yesterday when a nurses' conference was told of the "living hell'' of working in a busy emergency department.

Mike Hayward, a charge nurse at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, described how bodies were abandoned on trolleys as staff tried to cope with 30 patients waiting for beds.

He said it was "the most shocking example of sub-standard care'' he had experienced inn his eight-year career. Four dead bodies were left in a side room in conditions he likened to "Third World care''.

"I'm ashamed,'' he told the Royal College of Nursing's annual conference in Harrogate. "We were so busy and so overstretched and had totally run out of space, even corridor space.

"In my clinic suite I had four dead bodies lying on trollies. These were patients who were unsuccessful resuscitations that had died during that morning.

"These were total strangers left lying next to each other without the dignity and respect of last offices being performed. Not because we didn't want to but because it was impossible.''

Mr Hayward spoke out about the crisis two months ago in an attempt to highlight the chronic pressures on A&E departments. He said such scenes, which could happen in any casualty department in the country, are the result of an acute shortage of beds exacerbated by bed-blocking.

Mr Hayward said his full compliment of 13 staff were struggling with three times their normal workload because of an outbreak of chest infections and asthma attacks.

Dead bodies were left on trollies for a couple of hours, their grieving relatives not even aware they had been abandoned.

Mr Hayward, aged 36, said: "I had three sets of grieving relatives dotted around in various offices and cubby holes. This was Third World care in the NHS, here and now. I felt helpless, ashamed, embarrassed and just totally frustrated.''

A hospital spokesman said: "There was nothing untoward about the way the bodies were stored. They were temporarily housed in a private locked area and were not on public view.

"The picture he painted was probably fairly typical of an A&E department during the winter months. Staff are extremely resourceful and cope with what is thrown at them."