A CANCER patient who spent 13 hours on an A&E trolley says NHS bosses should pitch army tents in the car park to stop Worcester hospital's corridor 'hell'.

Solicitor Nick Turner was admitted to Worcestershire Royal Hospital with a blood infection after chemotherapy for bowel cancer compromised his immune system.

Following his ordeal Mr Turner has come up with a radical solution for NHS bosses - tents like those from the hit 1970s TV series MASH which he thinks would be preferable to patients being crowded into corridors.

The 54-year-old of Ombersley Road, Worcester, spent 13 and a half hours 'half naked' on a trolley and has now written letters of complaint to the chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Michelle McKay, the Care Quality Commission and Worcester MP Robin Walker.

He was taken to hospital by wife Joy on July 30 after he developed a raging fever. There were no beds available so he ended up in a corridor with '50 plus patients', male and female.

Mr Turner, who has been to hospitals in Abidjan, Ivory Coast where he distributed Gideons bibles, said: "It felt like I was in the third world. Conditions were similar to West Africa. It's a disgrace to this country and the NHS leaving matters as they are a moment longer."

Mr Turner had a tumour removed from his bowel and is now undergoing chemotherapy which has left him feeling exhausted, ill and very vulnerable.

He said of his corridor experience: "I felt humbled and humiliated. I felt I lost all my dignity. I was half-naked, wearing nothing but pyjama shorts. I was a name and a number."

The father-of-three said a female patient less than a foot away from his trolley was 'groaning in pain' and described the scene as 'chaotic'.

"It reminded me of an overnight ferry where you wish you had booked a cabin and forgot to do so. Your only option is to lie on the floor with the mass of humanity" he said.

Mr Turner, who is a partner at Russell & Co in Malvern, said he did not blame lack of funding but incompetent management at the trust and stressed he had no criticism to make of the nurses and doctors in A&E.

"They're dedicated, caring people, working in intolerable conditions" he said.

He believes a stay on a corridor at Worcester hospital has now become 'a right of passage' or an 'initiation' for most city patients and has called on the management of the trust to develop an immediate, urgent solution.

Mr Turner argues that plans now in the pipeline to improve the situation will not come soon enough for patients and urged managers to show more imagination.

The Worcester News has already reported on plans to invest some of £29 million of Government cash towards opening 81 beds in Aconbury by next winter to relieve pressure on the hospital.

But Mr Turner said: "That will not help anybody this year or next year. The only way they can do it is to put emergency army hospital tents in the car park like in MASH.

"Patients will feel a lot better if they're in something like a ward such as a temporary hospital.

"If you call the corridor hell, then the Medical Assessment Unit felt like heaven but it's only a portable cabin with no windows."

Mr Turner spent seven days in the hospital after his admission, first in the corridor then the medical assessment unit before being transferred to the medical high care unit. He stressed that his care in the rest of the hospital was fine. He is now recovering at home after spending a further seven days at the Spire Southbank Hospital in Worcester.

A spokesperson for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We’re sorry that Mr Turner was unhappy with his experience in our A&E department and understand the anxiety caused when any patient has to spend some of their stay in the A&E corridor.

“It is important to note, that the corridors referred to are a fully enclosed part of our A&E department, and these patients are cared for by the same doctors and nurses as any other patient in the department.

"This is not the experience we aspire to provide for patients, but during the busiest periods it is sometimes necessary to utilise a corridor in the department to enable us to treat all the patients who attend our A&E.

“We recognise the challenges we have around patient flow and the impact this has on our emergency department. We are continually focused on making improvements, ultimately to eliminate the need for any patient to spend time in the corridor.

“Our plans to create more bed capacity in Aconbury East at Worcestershire Royal Hospital have now been approved.

"But we have also developed plans to use capital monies we have received to create more space in the areas adjacent to the A&E at Worcester later this year, to allow streaming of patients throughout the day from the A&E into acute and primary care.

"This is a model that has worked very effectively elsewhere including at our Alexandra Hospital site in Redditch.

“As always the public can help support us in this, by only attending A&E if you have a serious or life-threatening emergency.”