An East Lancashire doctor has said the NHS is “on its knees” after his vulnerable mother spent 24 hours waiting for a hospital bed and received treatment in a corridor.

Dr Abdul Mannan, a GP at Haslingden’s Hazelvalley Family Practice, took his 70-year-old mother, Altabun Nessa, to hospital back in September as she was suffering with heart pain.

Mr Mannan said they spent around 24 hours at Royal Blackburn Hospital before Ms Nessa, from Rawtenstall, could be taken to a ward.

During this time they received treatment in the hospital’s corridors.

East Lancashire Hospitals Trust apologised for Ms Nessa's experience, and added Blackburn's A&E is "extremely busy" and it is working to try and reduce waiting times.

It added at busy times there is no option but to treat people in corridors, and that patients have to be prioritised by clinical urgency.

Dr Mannan said: “For 12 hours of that she was in a chair and for the remaining 12 hours she was on a trolley in a corridor in quite a busy spot.

“She was taking her medication there, having observations done there. Other people were being hooked up to saline IV drips in the corridors.

“She was so uncomfortable and it was just horrendous. There was no dignity in that situation.

“I would say she was in a critical state with ongoing chest pains. She could have had a heart attack at any point in the night.”

Ms Nessa was eventually taken to a ward and later underwent double heart bypass operation. She is recovering at home.

Dr Mannan wants to use their experience to highlight the problems with the NHS and is calling for an overhaul of the system.

He said: “Years of chronic under resourcing of our systems and austerity measures has brought the NHS to its knees.

“Blackburn hospital staff were good and doing their best to look after her.

“It was just too busy and there were too many patients waiting to be seen.

“No-one was available and there wasn’t enough space to do the work.”

Earlier this month nurses across the UK voted to strike in the first ever national action over a pay dispute.

The strike ballot among more than 300,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) was the biggest ever in the union’s 106-year history.

Dr Mannan said the country needs to start looking after workers if we want to protect the NHS.

He said: “The NHS now is completely unrecognisable compared to the NHS I came into as a junior doctor in the year 2000.

“We need to start looking after people who work in the NHS so they don’t leave.

“Nurses are striking and medical staff leaving as we just don’t take care of them, they are poorly paid and poorly treated.

“We need to train our own professionals and retain them with good working conditions, we need to value them and pay them appropriately.”

Sharon Gilligan, chief operating officer at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which manages Blackburn Hospital, said: "We're really sorry Ms Nessa had to wait so long to be seen and glad to hear she is now recovering at home.

"The A&E at Royal Blackburn has an incredibly busy emergency department.

"Everyone at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust is working as safely and effectively as possible to reduce waiting times, and the support of local people is appreciated as we manage huge pressures on our urgent and emergency care centres.

"Unfortunately when all cubicles are full with patients, it does mean we need to use corridor space for waiting areas where necessary.

"Patients are treated as quickly as possible and, as you would expect, treated based on clinical urgency. We appreciate this means some people are waiting longer and can only apologise to anyone who does have a long wait."