Pensioner, 89, turned away from hospital since workers had gone home for the weekend

“They said the man in the stroke unit was going for the weekend – and we must get my husband to City Hospital alternatively.

“My husband was a vet and he never ever turned away a cat, a dog or a horse at weekends.

“He worked 24/7 and for four years he by no means had a holiday.

“It is a disgrace how he was handled like a second rate citizen.”

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Believe in, which runs King’s Mill Hospital, said it would investigate what happened alongside East Midlands Ambulance Services (EMAS).

A spokeswoman at King’s Mill said the hospital’s hyper-acute stroke thrombolysis unit operated from 8am on Mondays to 6pm on Fridays.

She added that it takes about a single hour to treat a patient so the agreed minimize off time for acquiring new individuals is 5pm on Friday afternoons.

She mentioned: “Outdoors these times, we have an arrangement that sufferers go to the Nottingham stroke crew.”

Mr Mallalieu’s remedy comes just days after NHS healthcare director Sir Bruce Keogh announced that consultants’ contracts will be rewritten so that they can no longer refuse to perform at weekends.

Sir Bruce mentioned the patients-initial changes will be made to ensure steady requirements of care 7 days a week.

Analysis earlier this yr discovered that 4,400 men and women die every 12 months due to inadequate personnel cover at weekends.

According to a research based on hospital admissions in 2009-ten, the risk to sufferers of dying on Saturdays was 11 per cent greater than in the week and sixteen per cent on Sundays.

The assure of diagnostic tests at weekends, and the presence of consultants capable of interpreting the outcomes, would reduce people odds.

Sir Bruce said: “There is a clause which says that organisations can not force a advisor to operate the weekend – I believe we can have that clause eliminated.”

An East Midlands Ambulance Support spokesperson explained: “Mrs Mallalieu had not contacted us to share her concerns.

“We will now make contact with her to verify that we are carrying out an investigation to establish the information and that we will provide her with complete information of our findings.”

Pensioner, 89, turned away from hospital since workers had gone home for the weekend