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Lis, 69, forced to sleep in Swedish hospital toilet

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Lis, 69, forced to sleep in Swedish hospital toilet

Overcrowding is becoming so serious in Swedish hospitals that in some cases patients are being forced to sleep and eat in rooms described as toilets.

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In Ängleholm in Skåne, a 69-year-old woman was left to eat and sleep in what she described as a disabled toilet.

Lis Davidsen was brought to the hospital one night last month, but because of a lack of suitable beds, the best they could offer her was a room with a toilet for the disabled.

“In the morning, I felt so bad that I couldn’t go to the dining room, so I had to eat my breakfast in the bathroom. That was over the limit,” she told the Kvällsposten newspaper.

The following night nurses managed to move her out of the room, but she was still moved around four times.

At one point, Davidsden was even asked if she would be prepared to share a room with two men because of problems finding suitable bed space on a ward.

When Davidsen was forced to return a week later with an infection, she was told that she would have to go into the “room” once again.

However, her son was so furious at how she had been treated that they found her a bed on another floor of the hospital, she told the newspaper.

According to Annelie Månsson, operations manager for the emergency department at Ängelholm Hospital, Davidsen's description of the room in which she was placed as a "toilet" isn't entirely accurate.

“It is an exaggeration to call the room a 'toilet' as as been suggested," she told The Local.

"It is a hygiene room large enough to fit in a bed. It isn’t ideal but unfortunately we are faced with overcrowding problems and we have to find solutions for it.”

She added that it is safer than leaving patients in corridors because there are bells on the wall so they can call for help.

Månsson added that overcrowding at Swedish hospitals is a bigger problem than usual at this time of year.

“We are under pressure all year round, but because of the extra numbers of tourists that come in for emergency treatment at this time of year it adds an extra burden for us,” she said.

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