London - A 74-year-old man died after being ferried between three hospitals immediately after major surgery because no bed could be found for him, it emerged yesterday. While health chiefs said the NHS was coping with winter pressures and claimed the beds crisis was easing, the death highlighted the shortage of intensive care places across Britain.
On Tuesday the pensioner, Mr Harold Smith, died in Bridgend, Wales, 200 miles from his home in Ross-on-Wye, near Hereford, after a frantic five-hour search for an intensive care bed.