An obese woman has criticised staff at Northampton General Hospital for their reluctance to use an ambulance to take her home.
Margaret Brayley, 57, is wheelchair-bound and was admitted to hospital more than two weeks ago to be treated for a bladder infection and cellulitis.

Doctors assessed her and decided she was fit to be discharged a week ago, but since then she has been locked in an argument with hospital staff over whether or not she could be taken home by ambulance.

Mrs Brayley, said: "I went to hospital last year and they took me home by ambulance but they wouldn't do it this year because they said I was a risk.

"They said they didn't have the proper facilities for someone big to go in an ambulance. I thought they would arrange transport.

"The last time I was in hospital they got a special ambulance to take me home in a stretcher and they took me upstairs and put me to bed."

Mrs Brayley, who weighs 25 stone, added: "This time I've had nothing but problems all the way along. I didn't know what to do. They said I should move into a bungalow."

After a week's wrangling, a crew of paramedic staff took Mrs Brayley home in an ambulance.

She said: "I had to go in with a walking frame and then sit in my chair in the ambulance. I've been told if I go to hospital again they won't take me home in an ambulance."

An NGH spokesman said that a multidisciplinary team had been working very hard to make arrangements for Mrs Brayley to be discharged, since she was assessed as medically fit more than a week ago.

The hospital said six ambulance staff, including one risk assessor and another from NGH, were used to transfer Mrs Brayley home.

A spokesman for East Midlands Ambulance Service said: "We hope that Margaret understands that the delay in getting her home from hospital has arisen because we needed to make sure we had the right equipment, the right vehicle and the right staff available to move and transport her safely.

"This is not only for the patient's safety but also for the safety of all of our staff involved in the transfer."

-- Edited by littlemisslinkz at 21:02, 2008-02-04