Actress Cheryl Fergison reveals she was hospitalised at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and shares some of ther horrors she saw.
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00:00 Hi everyone, I've just spent the last 24 hours in A&E at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
00:13 I've seen things in the last 24 hours I can't unsee.
00:20 I've been in complete agony.
00:25 I've been made a million times better by the angels that are all of the NHS staff,
00:34 which I want to thank like big time.
00:39 When people say they don't get paid enough, they really don't get paid enough.
00:43 We've got a broken system. It's gone to pot. It's shot.
00:51 But it's still amazing and we still have it just by a thread.
01:00 I want to say firstly a huge thank you. I'm feeling a lot better.
01:06 And when you sit for 24 hours in a chair in A&E department being shipped off every six hours to go and get IV antibiotic drips
01:27 and come back again and sit in the waiting room of the A&E where you see much more other things keep happening
01:36 because there simply are no beds, no wards, no anything.
01:43 People are waiting up to 60 hours to be put on a ward.
01:50 I met a man there who'd been there over 30 hours and he still hadn't got a bed and he was having an operation on Monday, tomorrow.
02:03 No, is it Monday tomorrow? I don't know what day it's on.
02:13 I just can't believe the way that some people are.
02:18 Some people are like animals. They're like savages.
02:21 They just have no respect for the NHS staff or the people around them who are sick, who are ill.
02:31 They come in with minor things that could be treated with some paracetamol or if thought about,
02:42 they needn't bother to bother the doctors and nurses and the teams of the NHS staff.
02:50 They don't think. They just come in and think, "Oh, well, it's free. I'll use it."
02:56 But there are truly sick people out there who need to use the services and there was young, there was old, there was vulnerable.
03:06 There was people with mental illness. There was police having to deal with people who had just lost the plot, been in fights,
03:25 done all sorts of things, robbed people and it had gone wrong. So they'd come into A&E and sat next to an older lady
03:38 who just clearly had sort of had a fall and couldn't kind of, couldn't function.
03:48 So I feel like we need to stop abusing our system that we have at the moment that is free,
03:59 that was set up for people who could get the best care. And let me tell you, you know what?
04:08 They don't get paid enough. Sorry, they do not. For the abuse, for the care, for the hours,
04:17 for the lack of sleep they have, for the continuous care, even when they've come off shift.
04:24 I sat for 24 hours and watched this. At some points I was quite tearful. I had my head down.
04:31 And another thing, please, please, please, please, people, please.
04:36 If you see somebody, look, it's amazing that everybody's, you know, when they see you,
04:44 they come up and ask for pictures and they ask for signed photographs or they want to chat to you.
04:50 That's, you know what, me, that's fine. But there are certain places you just don't do that
04:57 and you don't take sneaky little pictures and you don't try to get people.
05:03 And that's in a hospital. I was at my most vulnerable, my most sickest, my most weakest,
05:16 most of the point without my family around me because they had to go home and get sleep.
05:23 And I was just having to wait for more tests and trips and things.
05:33 And I just thought, my God, what is the matter with people that they've become so desensitized
05:43 to people's emotions and sensitivities. I needed, I couldn't get any rest, obviously, there.
05:52 It was very clear I wasn't well. It was very clear that I was at my most vulnerable and my most weakest
06:03 and that I was thrown in with everybody else, like I should be, waiting my turn,
06:10 sitting in a waiting room in an A&E full of blood, vomit, every other type of spillage.
06:30 But don't take pictures. Don't take pictures of me while I'm ill.
06:37 There's something quite not right with you when you're doing things like that.
06:40 I don't quite know what you're getting out of it or what you expect to get.
06:45 Maybe you're going to sell it to the paper. Well, I'm trying to get there first and let people know,
06:51 don't bother. And if you're a paper that kind of is going to print people being sick and ill
06:56 and at their most worst of the time when they just at the worst, then more shame on you paper
07:07 for taking that picture and more shame for the people for selling the picture.
07:17 So I'm going to go get some sleep now.
07:25 I want to just say thank you, NHS and nurses.
07:32 You are so amazing, so amazing.
07:38 And don't let anybody stop your passion for caring for people,
07:43 because I always use the term humankind.
07:49 And I think you truly are humankind. And you have to deal with so much now.
07:56 And there's not enough of you and there's not enough money.
08:01 And this government has just torn it apart bit by bit by bit by bit over the years
08:10 and made it into something that is not accessible for everybody because there's no services,
08:18 not there. I mean, there are doctors trying to sort you out with no equipment there or equipment that's not working.
08:30 Not right.
08:33 So when you are next. Look, I pray that everybody is healthy and happy.
08:42 But if you ever become in a situation or your family or anyone who are in a situation where you are.
08:51 Well, you have to use these services. Think before you use them.
08:56 Think before you go down to the hospitals. Use the one on ones, use the walking clinics first before and use the hospital.
09:07 Is your last port of call if that's what the clinics everybody has told you to do, because.
09:14 It's. We have our own kind of war zone, do you know what I mean?
09:29 They're just brilliant. Thank you, Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
09:33 Thank you for functioning over this Easter weekend when it was a bit of sun out there and people were going a bit leery
09:43 or they might have had an accident or people just getting drunk and disorderly or obviously having mental health issues.
09:50 They dealt with everything. They dealt with everything.
09:53 And I take more than my hat off to you guys.
09:57 And thank you for your care. And no, there was no priority treatment.
10:03 There was no nothing. You know, what I love about living up north is that I don't care whether you've been a soap in London or on the telly or whatever.
10:18 They say as it is. And I love it. I love it.
10:23 I love the people. And I think I'm a bit tearful because I need some sleep.
10:33 Thank you. And for well wishes and things.
10:40 Thank you. I'm on the mend and I will be back very soon.
10:44 And I've got a book launch thing to do with my son on the 12th, as you know, of April.
10:50 And that's what I'm aiming to get better for. So thank you.
10:58 Thank you, NHS.
10:59 It just...
11:00 [ Silence ]