A BEREAVED father and cancer patient have joined forces in a campaign to end Worcester’s 'hospital corridor hell'.

Doug Shipsey whose 21-year-old daughter Beth died following a diet pill overdose and cancer patient Nick Turner who spent 13 and a half hours on a hospital trolley have discussed forming an A&E action group to call for urgent improvement at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester.

Both have become increasingly concerned about the care provided at Worcester but also feel that the regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), is dragging its heels by extending improvement deadlines for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, leaving patients in limbo over the winter.

A fresh report is not expected until the spring, more than two years after the trust was placed in special measures.

CQC inspectors visited Worcester again this month and hospital bosses opened the emergency ambulatory unit on Monday.

This £920,000 A&E overhaul is designed to improve patient flow and reduce the number of patients on trolleys in corridors.

A new management team, led by chief executive Michelle McKay who joined the trust on March 27, is attempting to drive forward improvements and a winter plan is in place.

Ms McKay also pledged to end the practice of patients being cared for on trolleys instead of in beds but gave no deadline for delivery.

Mr Turner, 54, of Ombersley Road, Worcester, said: "Promises are cheap. It's only delivery that counts. I will continue to campaign to end this corridor hell."

Mr Shipsey said there were difficulties in getting his daughter Beth to the resuscitation room because there were so many trolleys in the way after she was taken to hospital from her home in Warndon Villages, Worcester, by ambulance on February 15 this year.

Beth died at the hospital after overdosing on 2,4 Dinitrophenol, known as DNP, which she bought over the internet from the Ukraine.

Her family said she was moved three times in the 20 minutes before she suffered a cardiac arrest.

Managing director Mr Shipsey, aged 52, of Warndon Villages, Worcester, said the hospital has failed to improve since the CQC issued its warnings.

The trust was placed in special measures in November 2015 and critical CQC reports followed in November and December last year which rated the trust 'inadequate' overall, including for patient safety.

A warning notice (section 29A notice) was issued by the CQC in January this year, telling the trust to get its house in order within six weeks (by March 10).

An unannounced, focused inspection was carried out on April 11 and 12.

A deadline of September 30 was issued for the trust to make urgent improvements.

Mr Shipsey said: “When is this going to end? If we get a cold snap this winter we’re going to repeat the same hell as last year.

"The Care Quality Commission are hindering the process by issuing all these inexplicable and ridiculous extensions.

"Several people died in the accident and emergency department last winter.

"Are the Government playing Roulette with people's lives, are they stringing this out until this overcrowding is resolved?"

Mr Shipsey has now complained to the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, established on April 1 last year.

Although funded by the Department of Health and hosted by NHSI, the HSIB operate independently.

The HSIB is also independent of regulatory bodies like the CQC.

A Freedom of Information request by Mr Shipsey to the HSIB shows that the organisation has yet to receive any requests to investigate 'serious incidents' at Worcester hospital, aside from his own complaint although they are aware of the CQC's concerns about Worcester.

The CQC re-inspected Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust on November 1, 3, 7 and 8.

A CQC spokesperson added: "We are now reviewing the evidence collected from that inspection and will consider what further action is required.

"We expect to publish a report related to this inspection early in 2018. CQC’s local inspection team is in contact with Mr Shipsey.”