Patient took hospital drip to shop

A hospital patient was caught on camera dragging her drip into a busy Lancashire supermarket.

A customer snapped the photo as the patient made her way through Booths, opposite the Royal Preston Hospital (RPH), as he sat in the shop cafe.

The young woman, a patient at RPH was walking through the chilled food and drink aisle pulling along a drip stand only yards away from customers eating food in the cafe.



A spokesman for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who run the RPH, said: "We request patients to seek permission from a nurse in charge or notify staff of their whereabouts, such as if they want to leave the ward to buy a newspaper from the hospital shops.

"There would never be agreement for any inpatient to leave the hospital premises to visit nearby shops with a drip inserted."

A spokeman for Booths said: "We make every effort to accommodate the diverse needs of our customers within our company procedures, which state that we will not serve customers who are under the influence of alcohol, under age or abusive to staff or shoppers."