Elderly woman dies alone in corridor – with the emergency care crisis leaving A&E medics ‘distraught’

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By Claudia Tanner

The death of an elderly woman alone on a corridor trolley at a Merseyside hospital has brought into sharp focus the devastating toll that the emergency care crisis is taking on both patients and clinicians.

Overwhelmed A&E medics at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral have spoken anonymously to the media to reveal how devastated they were after the woman died without being seen.

"This woman was in the back of an ambulance and they came in, early hours of the morning and because it wasn't staffed, she died, on her own, on the corridor,” said one staff member. “She was an older lady. My colleagues were absolutely distraught. They were broken hearted."

A medic told the Liverpool Echo that an "absolutely awful" winter has left staff extremely distressed. Regularly treating more than 200 patients in a space built for 50-60, the employee warned that "we are failing our patients" as 40–50 people at a time are left in corridors or escalation areas.