A HOSPITAL patient spent three days as an inpatient - as she waited for a CT scan.

Colchester General Hospital has been on black alert for the past few weeks as there are no spare beds.

It comes at a time when the hospital is facing a three-day inspection by health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission.

Colchester councillor Rosalind Scott said staff should not be blamed as they are facing huge pressures working at full capacity and do not have time to speak out for support.

Her mother went to gastroenterology as an outpatient on Wednesday for a CT scan.

She was due to be admitted to the Langham Ward, but as there were no spare beds she was admitted to the Emergency Assessment Unit.

She was subsequently moved onto the Langham Ward later that day, and stayed in hospital until Saturday morning.

The Labour councillor for Wivenhoe said her mum should have only been in hospital for one day at the most.

She said: “Staff made her as comfortable as possible but the CT scan was the only reason we were there.

“There is a lot of bed blocking as people have nowhere to go and it’s terrible, but this is bed blocking because other services are not prioritising well enough.

“A hospital needs to have empty beds at all times.”

She stressed the NHS should not be criticised as frontline staff are doing so well in such difficult circumstances.

She said: “In order to help the hospital function we have to reduce the occupancy [and] there are all sorts of small things making that impossible, like CT scans not being well-organised.

“We have got to have a full, permanent staff who can work together and see their problems, that’s the absolute key.

“I can’t reiterate enough that staff are doing a wonderful job in terrible conditions, the staff are the ones who know how to make it better and if they aren’t rushed off their feet on 100 per cent occupancy they could tell us what small things make a big difference.”

The hospital has opened a new service, ‘the discharge hub’, in a bid to get patients home who are in beds but do not need care.

A new separate unit, managed by a team of nurses, has been opened to provide care for patients who can not get back home but are medically fit.

A Colchester General Hospital spokesman said: “We are sorry that she could not be admitted to Langham Ward immediately but she was in a bed in a totally safe environment and cared for by medical and nursing teams.

“It is not unusual at times of heightened demand for patients to spend longer in EAU than is ideal, but they are at all times in the care of healthcare professionals and we work hard to minimise delays.”