Piers Morgan recollects ‘horrible’ NHS story of mum’s 7-hour A&E trolley wait on TV

Piers Morgan has recalled his mum’s awful experience of waiting seven hours on a trolley alongside 40 patients in A&E.

The TV presenter and journalist said his personal experience brought home “the terrible state” of the NHS as he repeated calls for politicians to take action. He said he has received a huge reaction from people who have had similar experiences since he revealed his family’s experience earlier this year. He demanded the Government say when the public can be confident the NHS will be there for them when they need it and give them the “dignity” they deserve.

Piers’s 79-year-old mum Gabrielle had a heart attack in November and could have “died on a trolley in A&E” after being stranded in a warzone emergency unit in Sussex. Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, he said: “When you have a personal experience of the NHS, it really brings home to you the terrible state that it’s – and it’s not a reflection on the staff, but on the institution.”

Piers said his mum was rushed in an ambulance to hospital “and from midnight until 7am, she was kept on a trolley in A&E out in a corridor and there were 40 other people lying on these beds out in a corridor”. It is not the first time Piers has spoken about the experience and he confronted Rishi Sunak about it when he interviewed him.

After speaking publicly about his mum’s ordeal, he said the “reaction I got from people all over the country was similar stories”. He continued: “Our A&E units are war zones. So I want to see a pledge not just about waiting lists, but also: what happens when you absolutely need our health systems, is it going to be there for you and are we going to give people dignity when they have these situations? Once my mother got taken up to the cardiac unit – amazing treatment, the best in the world. Before she got there, she could have died on a trolley in A&E. It’s just not acceptable.”