Shocking photo emerges of elderly woman sleeping on hospital floor

An 84-year-old grandmother has been forced to spend two hours in pain on a hospital floor because there were no beds.

The woman has now spoken after a photo surfaced of her lying on the floor, swaddled in sheets, at Geraldton Regional Hospital’s emergency department in Western Australia.

“Oh the pain, it’s just constant,” the grandmother said.

“And I just couldn’t keep sitting.

“And my son tried to get some help and they didn’t have anywhere.”

The grandmother doesn’t want to be identified as she doesn’t want to make a fuss.

Even after spending hours in a doorway at Geraldton Regional Hospital, she still has nothing but praise for hospital staff.

“They gave us some stuff to put on the floor and a pillow so I could lay down there,” she said.

The woman spent two hours on the floor in extreme pain with a suspected kidney condition. She couldn’t sit in a waiting room chair.

Nurses did what they could, they brought her pillows, blankets and a heat pack.

The photo, however, created uproar and WA Health Minister Roger Cook ordered an urgent review, saying the incident was appalling and unacceptable.

“But that’s unacceptable to have any patient anywhere in the WA Health system being accommodated on the floor,” he said.

“I’ll be meeting with the Acting Director General and the Chief Executive of WA Country Health Service as a matter of urgency.”

The woman has urged the government to find out what’s really happening in hospitals.

“Well they need to listen to the staff. If the staff tell them they need more help, why don’t they take notice?” she said.