A YOUNG patient was horrified to find a cannula still firmly lodged in her arm when she returned home from the Great Western Hospital.

Georgina Price, of Swindon Town Centre, who suffers from urinary retention, was admitted to hospital after developing a urinary tract infection last Saturday.

After four days she was discharged “summarily”, she claimed, and five minutes after being told she could leave, she was out of the door.

It is only when she reached her town centre home that she noticed her nurses had failed to make routine checks and remove the tube hooked into a vein in her left arm.

Georgina is now asking a formal apology from the hospital and urging staff to treat patients like her with the care and consideration they deserve in the future.

The 27-year-old said: “I got home at 11am and that’s when I noticed it. I had an endoscopy at the hospital and they put the cannula in to give me sedation. I didn’t feel it because I’m so used to it and it wasn’t hurting.”

“I am just so angry that they didn’t make any of the checks they were supposed to. It’s a really basic thing. They do it every single day.

“I just feel like they couldn’t wait to get me out of there. I was rushed. They brought in the discharge papers and I was out in five minutes. I want an apology.”

Georgina had to wait until a nurse visited her that evening to have it removed safely.

Due to her condition, the former carer has been admitted to hospital several times already this year, to have the catheter attached to her bladder replaced, or to be treated for infections.

She is due for another catheter change on Tuesday but is now concerned about returning to GWH.

“I feel like they don’t really care,” she added.

“And if they can do it to me they can do it to other people. It could have been dangerous. This is not a way to treat patients and it’s not reassuring for next time.

“They need to be more careful and look after vulnerable people properly. We are not cattle, we are people.”

Each year the Department of Health receives reports of patients discharged with cannulae still in their arms or hands.

In the UK such events are considered serious enough to fall under the department’s ‘never events’ policy and can lead to nurses being disciplined.

No-one at the Great Western Hospital was available for comment.