UK man with serious kidney infection waits over 100 hours on trolley

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - A 56-year-old man in Northern Ireland waited more than 100 hours on a trolley in a hospital accident and emergency (A&E) department despite having a serious kidney infection, local media reported Wednesday.

Paul Gibben was rushed by ambulance to the hospital after being diagnosed but had to wait 10 hours alone in the ambulance outside Ulster Hospital in County Down due to a lack of bed space, the Express newspaper reported, citing Belfast Live.

At 3 a.m. on Saturday, he was transferred to the corridor of a ward and was left on the trolley until Tuesday evening, when he was able to get a hospital bed.

Paul’s son, Andrew, said his dad is "prone to infections.”

"The big worry is knowing when the hospitals were working well, how many times he picked up infections or had complications compared to now, when he’s effectively been sitting there since Friday and the system is under pressure," Andrew told Belfast Live.

Andrew said the real worry was that his father may develop a new infection during the long wait as he picked up bad infections in the past.

"I don’t want to speak badly of the NHS, but they just don’t seem to be coping at the minute," he added.

The hospital meanwhile said that it is experiencing "significant pressure" mainly due to a rise in flu and COVID-19 cases, according to the report.