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A hospital patient who suffered a suspected heart attack claims he was “shunned” by a nurse who did not like his “Donald Trump 2024” cap.
Ronnie Lee claims the nurse called his hat “disgusting” and that she urged others not to talk to him as he supports the former American president.
Ronnie, from Gloucester, added that the nurse called Trump a racist, reports Gloucestershire Live.
He said: “The last thing I needed was somebody drilling me over President Trump.”
Mr Lee complained of not having ECGs carried out on him during three days when he had to sit in a chair while he waited for a bed to become available at the hospital in Gloucester.
He said he suffered three cardiac arrests and a massive heart attack in 2019 and then was admitted to the city’s hospital a few weeks ago because he had chest pains again.
The 43-year-old claimed he was not offered any painkillers during the first three days of his stay in the hospital, during which he said the nurse sided against him because of his enthusiasm for Mr Trump, whom he described as “the greatest president in the world”.
He said: “I told them I had pains. For three days, they never did one ECG.
“I told them I was in pain. I never got given any medication – no paracetamol, no morphine, no nothing. I asked them when I was going up, they wouldn’t speak to me.
“I never slept for three days. The room they put me in had blood all over the floor. It was absolutely disgusting and I wasn’t the only person.
“There were people in a lot worse position than what I was in.”
Mr Lee said he was moved into a corridor and he claimed patients there were given enemas in public, rather than in private – though this has been denied by hospital bosses.
He added: “I felt that I wasn’t welcome, that I wasn’t wanted, that I was a fake and a fraud. When my sister came to see me I burst out crying. I didn’t want to be there but I had to be there.”
He said that he was disgusted with the way he was treated, which he felt was because of his right wing views as a Trump supporter and a Conservative.
He said he was admitted to the hospital’s cardiac ward and went on to be transferred to Cheltenham General Hospital, where he was given medication for having a blocked artery and about which he had no complaints.
He said he had put a complaint into the Gloucester hospital but had not heard back from it and that he was raising the issues publicly because he did not want anyone else to go through what he had.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs both hospitals, said, in a statement: “We are very sorry to hear that Mr Lee was unhappy with the care he received at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and encourage him to come forward and share his experience with our Patient Advice and Liaison (PALS) team so that they can investigate this for him.
“We would like to assure Mr Lee that we strive to provide the same high levels of care to all our patients, regardless of their political affiliations.
“We expect our colleagues to treat all patients with compassion and respect, and there are clear policies in place for when individual behaviours do not meet these standards of care.
“Equally, we take very seriously any abuse, racism and threats towards staff and take appropriate action when this occurs.
“While Mr Lee’s choice of headwear is entirely his personal choice, it is possible that some people might regard this as provocative because of the views held (or perceived as held) by that individual.
“Nonetheless, as stated previously, we expect every patient to be treated with kindness and respect and if our investigation finds this not to have been the case, this will be addressed under our conduct policy.
“We accept that unfortunately, very high demand means that our emergency department at GRH is often under extreme pressure.
“This means that on occasions, care may be provided in circumstances that are far from ideal and waits can be longer than we would wish.
“Despite this, our staff do everything they can to ensure that patients’ privacy and dignity is maintained and that the care they receive is of the highest standard and we are sorry that this wasn’t Mr Lee’s experience of his care.
“Given we are reliant on discharges to enable patients to move from ED to a ward, it can be very difficult for our staff to provide an accurate assessment to patients of when they might be transferred to a ward.
“However, it is unacceptable for anyone to be left waiting for pain relief and we will investigate this aspect (drawing on information from Mr Lee’s patient record) as part of a full investigation should Mr Lee choose to engage with our PALS team.
“We are sorry that Mr Lee found blood on the floor. Our domestic teams work hard to keep our environment clean both as part of regular cleaning rotas and in response to ad-hoc incidents.
“The very nature of emergency departments and the injuries suffered by some patients leads to the possibility of blood spills which patients may witness but this is cleaned up as soon as possible.
“We refute in the strongest terms that any patient was given an enema in a corridor area, let alone one that is open to the public.
“We are pleased that Mr Lee’s experience at Cheltenham General Hospital was more positive and hope that he will contact our PALS team to discuss his other experiences.”
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