A HASLEMERE woman has likened the treatment she received in the Royal Surrey County Hospital's accident and emergency department to that of impoverished remote and rural areas of Nigeria.

"I work a lot in Nigeria in very poor rural areas where hospital and health care is basic indeed. RSCH should be offering something much better, but is failing to do so," claims Caroline Ifeka who was rushed into the hospital earlier this month.

Mrs Ifeka (61), from Scotlands Lane, was admitted to the A and E department suffering from malaria.

"During my 24 hours of admission I had the opportunity to experience something of the unpleasant conditions that prevail," she told The Herald.

"There was no bathroom for overnight patients and no hot water in two toilets for hand washing. Patients were shunted into corridors on trolleys or beds, with elderly patients in distress."

She described the food she was given as "appalling" and conditions as "humiliating" especially for one elderly man who walked past her several times in one morning, presumably on his way to the toilet.

"He walked down the corridor in bare feet, wearing a hospital gown, with strings at the back open, showing his buttocks and more and removing what remained of his dignity."

Mrs Ifeka returned from Nigeria on April 25 where she runs a non-government organisation working in very remote and rural areas, in south eastern Nigeria, in the tropical rainforest. The community conservation scheme in which she is involved, she said, helped to reduce poverty and preserve the rain forest.

Her comments come the week after a Grayshot GP, Dr Lance Cavannagh, spoke out about what he sees as a worsening crisis in the NHS.

Mrs IIfeka was admitted to hospital by her GP several weeks after her return home after a blood test confirmed her worsening condition.

Mrs Ifeka said the conditions in the department were "horrible".

She had high praise for the nursing staff and doctors who she said were "excellent" but said the department was "extremely congested".

"Staff were barely able to get past one another at times, mixed up with ambulating patients, and a few visitors anxious to give needy support to family members who were on trolleys waiting for attention," she claimed.

"Stress levels must be high among clinical and support staff, working under such appalling conditions."

And she added: "Stress levels were high among patients, I observed, including myself."

"The management of the RSCH should be ashamed of itself," declared Mrs Ifeka.

"They employ good doctors and nurses, but the appalling conditions in A & E mean nurses are having to do tasks for patients they should not be doing, among them carrying basins of hot water into the toilet so patients can wash themselves," she claimed.

And she claimed that because of the additional tasks undertaken by nursing staff, patients are suffering and their distress increases.

"I can only conclude that the trust are poor managers. Poor management demeans staff and us the patients, mis-mangement is undermining the time, money and energy put into training excellent staff."

The "horrible conditions" continued Mrs Ifeka "are constraining the quality of service offered, to the patients' detriment and survival chances of serverely ill patients.

Mrs Ifeka who asked to be discharged from hospital the following day and be allowed to take her medication at home, issued a plea to the Royal Surrey Hospital.

"On behalf of all the patients exposed to the RSCH's A & E, I urge the trust to improve its management and to stop cost-cutting exercises immediately, to give a proper service to long- suffering patients."

She has also called on the trust to "supply conditions for staff and patients alike that allow the RSCH to afford the quality of professional care that should prevail in an advanced society at Britain.

"It is the trust's duty in a democratic, open society such as ours to take our criticisms seriously and improve immediately on its service to us, the public," believed Mrs Ifeka.

A statement from the Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Trust this week said: "Managers and clinical staff share the concerns expressed regarding the conditions that currently exist in Accident and Emergency at the Royal Surrey County Hospital.

"However, these are not as a result of mismanagement or any attempt to save money. On the contrary £450,000 additional funding has been pumped into A & E to try to alleviate the

pressures.

"It was never intended that patients should have to spend more than a few hours in the department whilst awaiting admission to wards. Therefore the A & E department does not have the same toilet facilities that are available on the wards. It does, however, have appropriate facilities to cope with A & E patients under normal circumstances.

"At present there are almost 50 patients whose acute care is complete but who cannot be discharged because of a lack of nursing or residential home places and severe pressure on social services funding of these places.

"These delays can range from weeks to several months and sometimes longer. The direct result of this is the increasing number of patients who have to wait for an unacceptably long time in A & E.

"The A & E department has 16 cubicle spaces but at times there are over 30 patients, sometimes elderly and confused, waiting for beds on the wards.

"These patients are in addition to the walking wounded who also need to be treated.

"The knock-on effect of the situation in A & E is that elective in-patient surgery has to be cancelled causing frustration for clinicians and distress to patients.

"The staff in the Accident and Emergency department provide high quality medical and nursing care while working under immense pressure.

"The problems the Royal Surrey's A & E department is facing are common to the other local acute hospitals in West Surrey.

Discussions are continuing with both West Surrey Health Authority and social services to try and find a way forward."