Cancer patient spent night on chair in hospital ‘cupboard’

A cancer patient in her 50s was forced to spend the night sitting on a plastic chair in what her family described as a “cupboard” at Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital.

The woman, who receives regular weekly intensive chemotherapy for breast cancer, had been rushed to the hospital’s medical assessment centre after falling ill at home. Due to her weakened immune system, she needed to be isolated from other patients at the overcrowded unit – but the only space available was a small side room.

Her mother, who lives in Cornwall, said: “They put her in a cupboard and she was sat on a plastic chair. Her father, my ex-husband, was able to come down and they both spent the night in a cupboard at the Royal Gwent on plastic chairs.”

She added: “Her immune system is compromised, due to having chemotherapy, and she was otherwise surrounded by all the people sleeping on the floor and being sick, it was like something from the Gaza Strip.”

The patient was eventually found a bed in a private room the following day and remained in hospital until Monday, October 6.

Her mother, whose husband is a retired consultant cancer surgeon, said: “The NHS is completely broken but it’s gotten to the stage it is just too ridiculous for words.”

A spokesman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board apologised and said: “We can confirm she was cared for in a small assessment room – not a cupboard – within the Medical Assessment Unit at the Royal Gwent Hospital. Although it is fully appreciated this was not ideal, it was decided that staying in the small room overnight would be the best possible option to protect her from the risk of infections which are currently circulating.”