A WOMAN has described Southend Hospital's emergency department as “a mess” after she spent the night sleeping on the floor amid a 28-hour wait in A&E.

Leeanne Sexton, a 39-year-old from Southend, suffers with stage three, chronic kidney disease, and kidney damage.

After finding herself in sereve pain on Monday evening she took herself to A&E. 

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But Leeanne, who believed she had a kidney infection, claims that after arriving at 7.30pm she was not seen by a doctor until 24 hours later. 

After seeing the doctor, she had a cannula inserted and was given IV antibiotics, while she was allegedly then told to wait for a bed.

Leeanne told the Echo: “The whole thing was a mess; Southend Hospital is so overrun.

“I arrived at 7.30pm, where I then had to sleep on the floor in A&E.

“I then wasn’t seen until 24 hours after, and still there wasn’t a bed for me, so I had to continue laying on the A&E floor.

“After 28 hours, without a bed still, I walked home as I live across the road, with my cannula still in.

“My hips are bruised from laying on the floor for so long. I wasn’t the only one either, I met another woman in there, who had waited 30 hours to get a bed.

“It was shocking, we weren’t offered anything, no food, no hot drinks, and it was freezing.

“Thankfully the security staff went and got some of us blankets."

Leeanne says she was then quizzed on where she had gone after leaving the hospital. 

She added: “After I left, I got a phone call asking where I went, I told them I live across the road so I have come home as I can’t lay there anymore. They asked about the cannula, and I told them I had taken it myself.

“They then just said ok, and the phone went. 

“After 28 hours had passed they were telling me I would probably be spending a second night in A&E as there were still no beds, I just had to leave.

“I couldn’t do it. It is absolutely shocking.”

Leeanne says she is now on antibiotics to try and treat the infection with her kidney.

In response to the issue, a spokesman for the Mid and South Essex NHS Trust said: “We have to prioritise urgent life-saving care, so people may have to wait longer than any of us would like for less urgent issues, and that could include longer waits in emergency departments or for an ambulance.

"We want to reassure everyone that the NHS is open, staff are working tirelessly, and anyone needing life threatening help must always come forward.”