Hospital kept me waiting for hours as I miscarried

But she could not possibly have envisaged the pain and confusion that awaited her and her new fiancé.

What followed was a nightmare as Miss Calkin, 27, was shuffled between four departments, and left bleeding in a waiting room for several hours.

She is preparing to make a formal complaint about her ordeal, which began when she went to her GP on Monday with pains in her side.

She was given an appointment for an ultrasound scan the next day, but by the morning Miss Calkin was worse – with cold shakes and severe stomach cramps – so her fiancé Steve Harvey took her to Basildon Hospital, Essex, early.

They had to wait for their original appointment, and after the first scan, were told Miss Calkin needed a further, internal ultrasound.

It was at this point that Miss Calkin noticed she was losing blood and became convinced that she had lost her baby.

However, when she told ultrasound staff, she claims they said it was nothing to worry about and just gave her a letter for the gynaecological referral unit.

Upon arriving there at 4.15pm, she was met with a sign saying: Closed. All patients to A&E.'

Still in pain, and by now relying on her partner's support to move, she shuffled there, only to be told that they could not treat her.

Miss Calkin, who has a five-year-old son, Adam, said: When I got to A&E, the triage nurse was really angry. She said the gynaecological unit was not supposed to shut until 6pm.

I was crying and I was devastated because I thought I'd lost my baby, and I couldn't believe what I was hearing.'

While the triage nurse tried to contact a doctor, Miss Calkin was not offered a bed, but was left to sit on a hard chair in the waiting room doubled over in pain.

The gynaecologist eventually phoned to say she finished at 6pm and would then come straight to A&E.

But by 6.30pm, there was still no sign of her, and Miss Calkin was told she would have to walk over to another ward and meet the doctor there.

She did so, but the doctor was nowhere to be seen. At about 7.30pm, staff discovered she was now actually on a different ward, although she promised she was on her way.

Miss Calkin said: I was losing blood and I had been there several hours. The nurse said I couldn't have a drink because I was possibly ectopic. This was the first I had heard of this – it was quarter to eight in the evening and I had been there since before 4pm.

It is a very dangerous condition and you could die. I couldn't believe they were only just mentioning it.'

The doctor finally turned up at 8.55pm, but there was a further shock.

Said Miss Calkin: I couldn't believe it – she herself was eight months pregnant. I was thinking, "I've lost my baby and you send me a pregnant gynaecologist."

She didn't even give me an internal examination, she just pressed my stomach. I asked if I had lost the baby. She said she couldn't tell me and I would have to have a hormone test in a couple of days to find out.

After all that, we had to leave without any answers.'

The following morning, she received a message to ring the hospital, and was then told she had miscarried. Miss Calkin says she and carpenter Mr Harvey were disgusted to be told over the phone.

She said: We got engaged three weeks ago and this was a planned pregnancy; we wanted to complete our family.

It was like being in a cattle market, I was in the busy A&E waiting room surrounded by bleeding and sick people and babies in prams.

The only person who helped was the triage nurse – she was brilliant.'

Ruth Osborn, a spokesman for Basildon Hospital, said: We very much regret Lisa's treatment did not meet the high standards of care we would aim to provide and that she should rightly expect to receive.

We apologise for the distress she clearly experienced. We will carry out a thorough investigation of the issues she has raised with the aim of improving patient care in future.

We are particularly concerned about the apparent early closure of the gynae referral unit and we are looking into this straight away.'