After a local MP spent twelve hours on a trolley with a ruptured appendix, London’s Turkish-speaking communities ask if our local hospital is overstretched
North Middlesex Hospital is used extensively by Turkish-speaking people in Edmonton, Enfield and Tottenham
Doubts were raised over the quality of healthcare at a hospital used by London’s Turkish-speaking people after a local MP revealed his treatment there had been delayed for hours.
Local teacher Zeliha Alp said her dying father received poor treatment at North Middlesex Hospital in Edmonton because there are not enough doctors and nurses to cover the work.
“They did not want to treat him because he was 91 years old,” she said. “They made us feel that very clearly. They saw him as an old and ill man close to death, which is why they did not want to spend much or give him any serious treatment.”
Readers have been contacting Londra Gazete to talk about their experiences at the North London hospital after local MP David Burrowes revealed he was left writhing in pain on a trolley for 12 hours. He was later diagnosed with acute appendicitis.
HARSH AND CARELESS
Ms Alp said that her father was kept waiting on floor when he fell and broke his hip on the ward, and that was lifted “harshly and carelessly” afterwards.
She continued: “Even when he had to go to the toilet, the care staff did not help him. My father had to struggle to get up and do it himself.”
Both experiences came barely six months after Chase Farm Hospital, in nearby Enfield, closed its own accident and emergency department permanently.
Local clinicians had assured patients that neighbouring hospitals were ready for the closure, which they described as being in the best interests of patients.
MORE INVESTMENT
But Mr Burrowes told Londra Gazete, “the reality I saw as a patient and not a politician was that on an ordinary day in June my local A&E could not cope.”
He said there was a desperate need for reform and Government investment, and added: “More immediately we need to ensure that projects like the Pymmes Park Medical Centre, which would provide increased access to quality primary care for Turkish-speaking patients, gains approval.
“We need the local doctors who said all would be well to come up with answers so my constituents don’t have to experience what I did and before we hit another winter crisis.”
CLEAR BURDEN
Edmonton MP Andy Love, whose constituency includes the hospital, added: “It is clear that North Middlesex Hospital has had to shoulder a considerable amount of increased burden since the closure of Chase Farm’s A&E, intensifying the challenges faced by an already-busy hospital.
“This has resulted in pressures on A&E and other services and lead to worryingly longer waits and slower referrals.
“The Government’s spending on an unnecessary and unwanted top-down reorganisation of our health service has taken money away from frontline staff.
“This has to be rectified if hospitals like the North Mid are to stand a chance of dealing with the pressures placed on them.”
HOSPITAL ‘ONE OF LONDON’S BUSIEST’
A spokesman for North Middlesex Hospital said they would investigate Ms Alp’s complaint.
He added that the hospital’s A&E department was one of London’s busiest, seeing as many as 600 patients on some days: “During the three days in early June when David Burrowes was a patient with us, there were exceptional challenges which resulted in delays in A&E treatment.
“We have apologised to David for the time it took to confirm his complex diagnosis and to get him to the operating theatre. It took longer than usual, but he was safe throughout, although we do recognise that he experienced considerable discomfort.
“We are continuing to discuss David’s experience with him and, as with all our patients, we will be sharing any lessons with our staff and health partners.”
NOT AT RISK
But the hospital spokesman added: “We strongly reject his suggestion that patients who don’t have someone to speak up for them are at risk.
“While we encourage family and friends to stay with patients in A&E, when a patient is alone, our doctors and nurses are particularly vigilant and also carry out hourly checks.”
Mr Burrowes had told the Mail on Sunday he feared being “completely lost in the system” if it was not for family and friends speaking up for him at the hospital.
