A woman suffering with sciatica has spoken out about feeling "ignored and neglected" after being made to sleep on a trolley in Blackburn A&E.

Sarah Smith, 46, from Blackburn was urged by her GP to go straight to A&E at Royal Blackburn Hospital on April 14, after the left side of her body became numb.

She arrived at around 6pm on the Friday where she waited in the waiting room for a few hours, before being transferred to a cubicle where she slept on a trolley overnight.

East Lancashire Hospitals Trust said it was sorry Ms Smith's experience was disappointing, and it only puts patients on trolleys in 'extreme circumstances'.

Speaking on her experience, Sarah said: “I was on a trolley on my own all night.

"I understand staff are busy, but I tried to get their attention because I needed my medication but I was just ignored.

"I had to ring my daughter and ask her to ring the hospital, it was ridiculous.

“There was no privacy and I barely got any sleep that night because I was so uncomfortable.

"Just getting myself off the trolley to get to the toilet was hard enough and painful.

“At around 12pm on the Saturday I was told I was being transferred to the Acute Medical Unit and I was given a bed while I waited to have a scan and to be fair, I was comfy there for a short while but then on the Sunday, I was told I was being transferred to a different ward again.

“The nurse did say I would get a bed because a patient was going home so I waited hours, but then they told me actually I’d have to be put on a trolley again overnight because the bed was going to an elderly woman.

“At this point I’d been there two days and still not had my scan, and I was being told I had to do another night on the trolley in my condition. I told them I was leaving because I couldn’t do it.

“It was so uncomfortable. I felt ignored and neglected, and I felt let down to be honest. The whole time, I had no privacy at all. There were no curtains around the beds and I’ve still not had my scan yet.”

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) has previously highlighted the pressures staff are facing with high A&E waiting times and staff shortages impacting the level of care a patient receives.

Earlier this year it was revealed 857 people were left waiting on trolleys for 12 hours or more in one month at ELHT.

The average wait was 18 hours and 17 minutes for physical health cases and 41 hours and 58 minutes for the 31 mental health cases.

Chief Executive at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Martin Hodgson, said: "We’re glad to hear Sarah was able to access timely care from colleagues across a range of departments at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospitals and hope she is recovering well.

"We are sorry she was disappointed by her experience. We understand how being allocated a trolley instead of a bed can feel disappointing but we’d like to assure people we only do this in extreme circumstances when we need to admit people to a ward and no beds are available.

“Patients receive the same high quality of care and attention as those in a bed and they are moved as soon as a bed is available.

"We'd welcome Sarah's feedback and encourage her to contact us directly so we can talk to her about her experience to help us continually improve."