NHS ordeal of Flog It! star Michael Baggott as he dies aged 51: Expert complained about care from Labour’s crisis-hit well being service that left him ‘dying of thirst’

NHS ordeal of Flog It! star Michael Baggott as he dies aged 51: Expert complained about care from Labour’s crisis-hit well being service that left him ‘dying of thirst’

Flog It! star Michael Baggott complained about the level of care he received on the crisis-hit NHS just weeks before his death — saying he was left ‘badly dehydrated’ and ‘dying of thirst’.

The BBC antiques expert, 51, yesterday passed away following a heart attack, a statement posted on his social media confirmed on Monday evening.

Baggott had previously been left bedbound for weeks after suffering a suspected stroke last October.

The NHS has come under increasing pressure from patients and politicians this winter over ‘unacceptably’ poor care Brits have received.  

Elderly patients have told how they have been abandoned in corridors for hours. 

Damning research also recently suggested more than 57,000 patients died last year as a result of waiting over 12 hours in A&E.

In December, the antiques expert Mr Baggott took to social media where he catalogued the poor care he claimed to have received whilst undergoing treatment at the Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham.

In a worrying series of clips posed to his X account at the time, he claimed he had hardly been given any water by mouth and was ‘dying of thirst’.

Flog It! star Michael Baggott left fans worried after sharing a series of videos from his hospital bed last October

Flog It! star Michael Baggott left fans worried after sharing a series of videos from his hospital bed last October

In a worrying series of clips posed to his X account, he claimed he had hardly been given any water by mouth and was ‘dying of thirst’

Michael had been one of BBC One’s Flog It’s most recognisable faces, with his expert categories being antique silver, smallwork, boxes, early spoons, provincial and continental silver

Filming himself, he told fans: ‘It’s been a week now and I’ve been able to take fluids for two days. I was left without any water at all and have become badly dehydrated.

‘For the last three days, I’ve been given a litre of water, which has been insufficient to stop me being dehydrated.

‘The gaps between being given water have been 15 hours, 17 hours with no water, 12 hours with no water and currently 15 hours with no water intravenous.’

He added: ‘I’m dying of thirst in a British NHS hospital and no one seems prepared to do anything about it.’ While this was never confirmed, there could have been medical reasons why he wasn’t being given lots of water, such as inability to swallow and danger of choking.

‘I want to say the nursing staff, the junior doctors here, have been the saving grace. They all want to help but they can’t. The senior management and the senior doctors, who I never see, always refuse water, always refuse treatment.

‘One told me yesterday If I don’t buck up my ideas, in three weeks I’ll never be able to walk again. Of course the junior staff told me that was nonsense, but it’s symptomatic of the treatment in this place.

‘All the staff are busting their gut to help you, the management and the senior surgeons are not’, he concluded.

MailOnline has contacted Good Hope Hospital for comment. 

Health leaders have repeatedly warned that patients have faced ‘unacceptable conditions’ this winter, with England’s top doctor earlier this month cautioning NHS staff were tackling a situation ‘similar to the days at the height of the pandemic’ 

Health leaders have repeatedly warned that patients have faced ‘unacceptable conditions’ this winter, with England’s top doctor earlier this month cautioning NHS staff were tackling a situation ‘similar to the days at the height of the pandemic’.

Latest data shows England’s emergency services are battling their ‘busiest winter ever’.

More than 2.3million patients visited A&E in December while ambulance teams tackled over 800,000 incidents — the highest number ever recorded in a single month.

Over 54,000 attendees in December had to wait more than 12 hours before being admitted, transferred or discharged.

But these figures only look at trolley waits — the time between doctors deciding a patient needs to be admitted and them getting a bed. 

Stats capturing exact arrival times at A&E paint a much bleaker picture, with 166,989 patients (12 per cent) forced to wait at least 12 hours.

Weekly figures released by NHS England also show the health service remains alarmingly close to capacity with 96 per cent of adult hospital beds occupied.

92 per cent is the point at which, experts say, performance of staff drops.

A damning report into the state of the NHS, released earlier this month, also found dead patients are lying undiscovered for hours in A&E because staff are too overstretched to notice.

The ‘harrowing’ report, published by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), also revealed a severe shortage of beds has meant the sick are being left in ‘animal-like’ conditions in hospital car parks, cupboards and toilets.

It featured the testimonies of more than 5,000 nurses, who exposed how patients are being cruelly ‘stripped of their dignity’ and routinely suffering avoidable deaths.

The 460-page dossier said it had become ‘normalised’ for patients to be left for days at a time in chairs or trolleys in ‘inappropriate settings’, rather than on a ward.

Demoralised nurses reported caring for as many as 40 patients in a single corridor – some blocking fire exits or parked next to vending machines. 

The post confirming the antique expert’s death read: ‘Heartbroken to share that Michael died yesterday in hospital of a heart attack following a stroke in October.

‘He was a dearly loved son, brother, nephew and uncle who will be deeply and profoundly missed. There will be a memorial service in the coming weeks, the details of which will be shared here.’

Bargain Hunt and Antiques Roadshow star Charles Hanson was among those to pay tribute.

Flog It! star Michael Baggott has died after suffering a heart attack

‘Rest in peace @baggottsilver A giant of our antique industry, our “Arthur Negus” and never afraid to call out “an expert” who got it wrong including myself. 

‘Michael’s thirst for knowledge for the ‘object within’ merited far more TV time too for a true and proper expert.’

Flog It! expert Nick Hall also tweeted: ‘So sorry to hear this, Michael was a true connoisseur and ambassador of the antiques world, a font of knowledge and generous with his knowledge, a raconteur and all round top bloke, a pleasure to have known you Michael.’

The weeks leading up to Christmas saw the antiques star tweeting regularly as he tuned into his favourite antiques TV shows.

He made a series of jokes about his health as he shared his expertise with followers, writing in a December 10 tweet: ‘Life changing events give you a new outlook, a new peace, a new gentility, a different frame of mind… 

‘BUT you’d have to run me over with a steamroller, several times, before I thought you’d get anywhere near £6-800 for this!!!’ alongside a screengrab from Antiques Roadshow.

A heartbreaking post on the same day read: ‘There’s a thin chance that a meteor will fly down, in the form of a guiding star, on Christmas Day and precisely hit the room that I’m in, in hospital. fingers crossed.’

He shared a throwback photo with his sister on December 23, writing that he was ‘thinking back to much happier times.’

Flog It! was axed in 2018 to make room for six new commissions to ‘modernise’ the daytime schedule

His final X post was shared on December 29, as he criticised another episode of Antiques Roadshow: ‘Expert: I can see these date London in 1758. 

‘Well, he must’ve had a f**king time machine because they’ve got the date letter for 1762 struck on them. You can get away with this s**t when I’m dead, not before #AntiquesRoadshow.’

Outside of his Flog It! exploits, his career saw him work at auction house Christie’s while still a university student. 

And after studying for his degree, he led Sotheby’s southern silver department for four years before transitioning to a private consultant role.

He was also an accomplished author on the subject of silver, with An Illustrated Guide to York Hallmarks 1776 – 1858 among his published works.

Flog It! was a daytime television staple since it first hit screens back in 2002 and saw members of the public have their treasured possessions valued by a team of experts.

However, it was axed in 2018 to make room for six new commissions to ‘modernise’ the daytime schedule.

A year ago Michael was at the centre of a death hoax and was forced to reassure his fans that he was alive and well. 

Posting on his official X, formerly Twitter, account, Michael reposted the fake death story about him, telling his followers: ‘The truth is it’s the ‘Vintage Specialist’ bit that really hurts… Not dead quite yet.’