Heartbroken daughter claims hospital Covid ward was ‘deserted’ and did not see father before death

James Wood, 74, who was from Sheffield but lived in Dinnington, was admitted to hospital on August 14 after suffering from a minor stroke.

After testing positive for Covid, he was moved to the B5 ward – where he sadly died on August 29.

Carina Wood, Mr Wood’s daughter, raised a number of concerns about her father’s treatment, and says she feels “patients are stuck in the corner to die.”

Ms Wood says she was told by a nurse that her father’s CT scan and the chest X-ray were fine, and that he could expect to come home in the next few days.

However, when she was told he was “too ill to come home”, she was so concerned she decided to visit the hospital, where she was told that Mr Wood was refusing food and treatment.

During the bank holiday weekend, Ms Wood struggled to get through to the ward on the phone – only to be told by her father’s wife that he had died on the morning of the 29th.

Ms Wood travelled from her home in Buxton to see her father that day, only to find the ward deserted.

“I had to ring the buzzer six times, and eventually had to get a cleaner to let us on to the ward”, Ms Ward said.

“The hospital was deserted.”

Once Ms Wood had accesses the ward, she was told her father “kept taking his oxygen mask off during the night”.

“You’d have though they would have checked if he was comfortable,” she added.