Nurse Quits After Foul-Mouthed Tirade At Heart Attack Victim

A nurse has resigned after telling a heart attack patient that he had no right to complain about being left lying in urine for two hours on a trolley.

Mark Wright, 39, was shocked when the nurse refused to listen to his concerns and started screaming abuse at him in front of other patients at Weston General hospital, Somerset.

He had been admitted to the hospital after suffering severe chest pains, but was left on a trolley for two hours before being moved to a general ward for tests.

Mr Wright described conditions there as filthy. When he complained of further pains during the night, he was told he would be examined in the morning.

He and six other patients wrote a letter of complaint about their poor treatment, using a form given to them by the hospital. But the next day the nurse confronted him about the complaint and launched into a tirade as he was having his blood pressure taken.

“She said, ‘You’ve got no fucking right talking to me like that, no fucking right to be complaining,’ ” he told the Bristol Evening Post. “She said she was going to retire in a few days, and the complaint would affect her pension.

“It was in front of all the other patients. I was gobsmacked. It was like a Carry On film.”

Mr Wright, a transport manager from Weston-super-Mare, was admitted to hospital on March 25 suffering from agonising pains in his chest.

He said the conditions on the wards were appalling and the stench was unbearable.

The nurse was told her actions amounted to gross misconduct and resigned.

A spokeswoman for Weston Area Health Trust said it had apologised for any distress caused to Mr Wright.

“There was an incident on a ward where a member of the nursing staff made unacceptable comments in front of patients,” she said. “All the patients who witnessed the incident, including Mr Wright, immediately received both verbal and written apologies on behalf of the trust.”