A LUNG disease sufferer was left in a corridor at Basildon Hospital without oxygen for four hours following an A&E capacity crisis.

Doreen Hornsby, 71, from Stanford-le-Hope, was moved from her bed in the Florence Nightingale Ward on December 9 after an emergency patient was given it.

Doreen’s furious family believe she would have been out of hospital two weeks earlier if she had not been left without her breathing equipment for so long.

Her son, Rick Hornsby, 36, also from Stanford-le-Hope, said: “They told her she would only be in a corridor for 15 minutes while they cleaned the room.

“Not only was she left there for more than four hours, she became stressed and she didn’t have her oxygen machine which left her very sick, with her not being able to sleep.

“When we questioned them all they said was they will be having a word with who was on that night.

“I think that is very poor when they are meant to be a health care provider. This put her health right back and she was in for about another two weeks.”

A spokesman for Basildon Hospital denied Mrs Hornsby was left in the corridor, or that her treatment that day affected her recovery.

She said: “Mrs Hornsby was moved from a specialist side room which was needed for another patient but at no point was she left uncared for in a corridor nor was there any delay in administering her medication.

“In addition the move from a side room bed to one on the main ward did not impact upon her expected discharge date in any way.”

The hospital has seen record numbers of admissions to the Accident and Emergency department this winter, with nine per cent more patients than last year on some days.

Terminally ill Jane Payn, 47, from Basildon, claimed she developed bed sores after being left for three hours on a trolley laying in her own faeces and urine, and was also dehydrated following her admission this month.

Mrs Payn’s husband Chris was so appalled by her treatment he lodged an official complaint to the Care Quality Commission which is already investigating standards at the trust.

Some patients are reportedly being treated on trollies in corridors and others have had to stay in ambulances parked outside the department while beds are freed up.

It has led to a raft of measures to ease the burden, but there have also been complaints of slipping standards by some patients.

Trust bosses are trying to ease the strain on the department by opening up beds for non-emergency patients at Mayflower Community Hospital in Billericay and at Brentwood Community Hospital.

They have also developed a 12-bed ward in a portable building without planning permission in the hospital grounds due to the ongoing demand.