A Rhos-on-Sea woman has been made to stay on a mattress on a floor after making a trip to the hospital.

Sarah Mackrell, 41, suffers from depression and schizophrenia and was visited by a home treatment team from Glan Clwyd Hospital last month after having suicidal thoughts.

The team arrived at 10.30am and after not being able to find a bed for her in the Ablett Unit, where she usually goes, they were forced to take her to Heddfan unit in Wrexham.

It took seven hours for a bed to become available, but on route to Wrexham she found out it would just be a mattress on the floor in the hospital.

After arriving at 5.30 pm she was eventually relocated from the mattress in the floor to a bed on an elderly ward at 8.30pm.

Talking to the Pioneer, Ms Mackrell said: "Before I went they had told me it was to a mattress on the floor but it didn't sink in till I got to Wrexham.

"When I saw the mattress on the floor I said to the nurse I'm going to need help getting off that bed. I feel if I had to stay on the mattress it would have been a fire risk.

"Due to my arthritis I would have struggled to get up and this distressed me greatly."

Despite the bed on the floor she said the staff had been very kind and didn't blame them for the incident at all.

Ms Mackrell said: "The staff were very kind and there was nothing they could do about it apart from juggling people around to get me a proper bed.

"The home treatment team and the staff at Wrexham did nothing wrong this is definitely down to those higher up who have closed wards in the Ablett. I think the staff on the ground do a wonderful job."

Betsi Cadwaldr University Health Board (BCUHB) director of mental health & learning disabilities, Andy Roach, said he was unable to comment on individual cases but said the lack of beds had been an ongoing issues in mental health units across North Wales.

Mr Roach said: “We can confirm that we have recently experienced some short term difficulties accommodating patients in our mental health units across North Wales.

“Where we have been unable to offer patients a bed in one of our inpatient bedrooms, we have consulted with patients and their families and given them the option of either being transferred to an available bed with one of our approved providers from outside of North Wales, or receiving care in a safe and fit for purpose environment, such as an assessment room, until a bedroom becomes available.

"We make every effort to move patients into a bedroom within 24 hours”