A CANCER patient says he is determined to bring about change at a Worcester hospital after he was flooded with letters of support for speaking out about his hospital trolley hell.

Solicitor Nick Turner, who is battling bowel cancer, said he had received around two dozen messages of support after the Worcester News reported on his 13 and half hour trolley ordeal at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

One of the letters of support came from a nurse and another from a woman who was so concerned about the standard of care her husband had received she took him out of the hospital.

The 54-year-old of Ombersley Road, Worcester, was taken to A&E in Worcester on July 30 after he developed a raging fever caused by a blood infection after undergoing chemotherapy for bowel cancer.

Mr Turner, a solicitor at Russell & Co in Malvern, said conditions in the corridor reminded them of those he had encountered in West Africa and even commented that tents from the hit 1970s TV show M*A*S*H would afford a better solution than the one which now exists.

Mr Turner, who has received an offer to appear in a television documentary after the article was published, said despite undergoing chemotherapy he would continue to campaign for change within the hospital so patients did not lose their privacy and dignity while being treated.

He said: “Going on a corridor doesn’t do much for your mental and physical wellbeing. You’re in there because you’re very sick and welcoming patients to a corridor is about the worst thing you can do.

"They want to feel they’re being looked after. To put someone who is sick, seriously sick, on a hospital corridor is cruel. I would be unhappy about my pet dog being treated in the same way.

“I have had emails, letters, phone calls and messages of support saying ‘glad you have said it’ and ‘thanks for standing up to be counted’. There needs to be a shake-up.

“Until I know that if you’re admitted into the hospital and A&E you’re going to be given a bed in a ward and treated with human dignity and respect I’m going to carry on campaigning. Lying on a corridor undermines human dignity. People who work hard all their lives and pay their taxes deserve better.

"It's very likely I'm going to be admitted one or two more times, again because of the chemotherapy I'm on."

Mr Turner, who wrote a letter of complaint about his experience, has received an acknowledgement from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust but has yet to have a response from the Care Quality Commission.

In a previous statement a trust spokesman said they were sorry Mr Turner was unhappy with his experience in A&E but stressed that patients cared for in corridors were treated by the same doctors and nurses as any other patient in the emergency department.

We have also previously reported how the trust, which remains in special measures and is rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission, is planning to invest a proportion of £29 million of Government cash in 81 extra beds next winter although Mr Turner argues that a quicker solution is called for.